Terracotta amphora (jar)

Swing Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse and reverse, warrior departing in quadriga (4-horse chariot) A soldier bidding farewell to his parents was a popular subject in vase-paintings. Here he has mounted a chariot drawn by four horses; and his charioteer, dressed in a long white and red chiton, prepares to drive him to the battlefield. The great warriors of Homer's Iliad were conducted to and from combat in this way.

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