Bronze funnel-strainer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Etruscans used metal and sometimes ceramic sieves to strain wine when ladling it from large mixing vessels into pitchers from which it could then be served. Thus, such utensils are part of the Etruscan ritual banquet and often appear in the hands of servants depicted in tomb frescoes. These two bronze examples are beautifully crafted with ornamental handles terminating in ram's and duck's heads. The better preserved strainer has two rampant lions sitting on its rim.

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