Terracotta situla (bucket)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The story of Apollo and the satyr Marsyas is depicted in high relief around the vessel. Under each handle are additional reliefs that imitate treatments of this shape as they appear in metal. Fine bronze situlae have been found at many sites in Northern Greece, Thrace, Southern Russia, and Western Europe. Scholars debate their ultimate origin but most are probably Etruscan exports from Vulci.

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