Terracotta jar with three handles

Terracotta jar with three handles

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This jar is from the collection of Heinrich Schliemann. The spirals, arches, and other curvilinear motifs admirably complement the volumes of the shape and such functional adjuncts as the handles, which could have secured a cover or facilitated lifting with a rope.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta jar with three handlesTerracotta jar with three handlesTerracotta jar with three handlesTerracotta jar with three handlesTerracotta jar with three handles

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.