Terracotta loutrophoros (ceremonial vase for water)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On the body, obverse, six women at a bier; reverse, five men On the neck, obverse, three women; reverse, three men The most frequently represented part of Attic funerary ritual is the prothesis, the laying out of the deceased surrounded by mourners. The care of the dead was primarily the task of women; they appear closest to the bier, while the men appear on the reverse of the vase.

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