Terracotta medallion fragment

Terracotta medallion fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Originally, the medallion would have decorated the body of a vessel, as with the three-handled jug in this case (17.194.870). This appliqué depicts the goddess Demeter with a crown of corn ears, seated on a throne and greeting the Eleusinian hero Triptolemus, to whom she is said to have taught the art of agriculture.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.