Terracotta bobbin

Penthesilea Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One side, Nike (the personification of victory) offering fillet (band) to youth Other side, Eros and youth This object belongs to a group of roughly half a dozen pieces, all of the same construction and exceptionally fine quality but of undetermined function. The two most frequently advanced interpretations are that they served as bobbins or yo-yos. The shape lends itself to either purpose. The fragility of the material makes clear that they must have been dedications. Like the adjacent pyxis, this bobbin demonstrates the Penthesilea Painter's wonderful gift for color and composition.

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