Terracotta hydria: kalpis (water jar)

Berlin Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Achilles and Penthesilea Penthesilea, the queen of the Amazons who assisted the Trojans in the Trojan War, was killed by the Greek hero Achilles. He fell in love with her even as he dealt the mortal blow. The Berlin Painter wraps the figures diagonally around the shoulder of the kalpis. For artistic effect, Penthesilea is disproportionately tall and assumes an unnaturally balletic pose. The composition, however, is admirably appropriate for its placement.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art