Terracotta skyphos (deep drinking cup)

Brygos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Maenads in rocky landscape The disparate handles increase the manipulability of the cup. The decoration shows two maenads (followers of Dionysos, the god of wine). The one on the obverse plays the flute as the lower border of her garment billows gently; her thyrsos, a fennel stalk crowned with ivy, has been set to one side. The maenad on the reverse bends and stretches vigorously, as indicated by her hair and the extremities of the feline pelt that stream out.

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