Terracotta kylix: eye-cup (drinking cup)

Nikosthenes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Interior, gorgoneion (Gorgon's face) Exterior, obverse, between eyes, Dionysos, the god of wine, with satyrs and maenads; reverse, between eyes, chariot Nikosthenes was the leading ceramic entrepreneur in Athens from about 530 B.C. to the end of the sixth century. Because he signed his name often, we know that he had a large shop and exported actively. Many of the largest preserved Attic vases were made for the Etruscan market.

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