Terracotta column-krater (bowl for mixing wine and water)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse and reverse, charioteer in a quadriga (four-horse chariot) The chariot race was the most prestigious event at all the Panhellenic games held in Greece. Only the wealthiest could afford the four-horse chariot with professional driver needed to enter the competition. This picture of a quadriga ready to depart must have pleased the symposiasts whose wine was mixed in the krater.

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