Terracotta lebes gamikos (round-bottomed bowl with handles and stand used in weddings)

Washing Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bride with attendants In the center of this magnificent scene, the seated bride is shown with a harp. She looks up towards a little Eros who levitates with two fruits in his hands. The attendant with torches at the far left indicates that it is evening. The other women hold a fillet (band) and caskets. The figures on the reverse and on the stand may be additional companions of the bride. Although the function of the lebes gamikos has not been definitively explained, it certainly is a nuptial vase and, like the loutrophoros, probably served as a container for water.

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