Terracotta neck-amphora of Panathenaic shape (jar)

Syleus Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, youth carrying wide, shallow bowl and branches Reverse, youth with branches The distinctive shape of the Panathenaic prize amphora, with its broad shoulder and sharply tapering body, was adopted on a smaller scale for other vases. The interpretation of the subject and of the function of this vase depends upon the identification of the bowl carried by the youth on the obverse. He may be a victorious athlete with a prize vase or simply a participant in the Panathenaic games.

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