Terracotta squat lekythos (oil flask)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Youth on horseback Figures leading or riding horses, a subject that had been popular on early black-figure vases, became significant again during the second half of the fifth century B.C. The major reason lies in the sculptural decoration of the Parthenon, which was executed between about 448 and 432 B.C. and exerted a profound influence on artists working in all media. While equestrian motifs are prominent throughout the program, the riders who make up the western end of the Parthenon frieze surely inspired the painter of this 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