Terracotta krater

Workshop of New York MMA 34.11.2

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The prothesis scene—the laying out of the deceased—in the central metope, or square panel, on each side of this monumental krater shows that it was meant for a funerary purpose, a grave marker. The scenes below narrate either a specific event that took place during the deceased’s lifetime, or a tale about an ancestral heroic expedition, as the warriors’ hourglass-shaped shields belong to the preceding Late Bronze Age. A continuous frieze shows battle scenes on two warships and two processions of armed warriors. A figure, interpreted as a captive woman, is tied to the deck under one ship’s sail. A warrior climbs onto the ram of the other ship to attack an archer with his spear. Sword duels take place in the stern of both vessels.

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