Terracotta stand with a satyr

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These objects, with squatting satyrs oriented to left and right, are clearly pendants. The funnel-shaped elements could function as vases, but they are more likely supports for vessels such as pointed amphorae, which could not stand alone. They are unique in Etruscan art for their combination of funnel-like supports with figural, three-dimensional sculptures. But a similar pair of nude males, perhaps also satyrs, appears painted on a wall of the Tomb of the Orcus II at Tarquinia that dates to about 325-300 B.C.

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