Terracotta lekythos (oil flask)

Group R

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Combat A horseman is fighting a foot soldier in front of the kind of whispy reeds that give this group of painters its name. The subject may indicate that this lekythos stood on the tomb of a man who died in battle. The iconography may, however, also be a reflection of the conflicts of the Peloponnesian War, which were taking place concurrently. Characteristic of the Reed Group's style is polychromy applied in translucent washes.

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