Terracotta alabastron (perfume vase)

Beth Pelet Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, upper zone, women at home; lower zone, youth pursuing woman Reverse, upper and lower zones, women at home In Attic pottery of the fifth century B.C., the phenomenon of superposed or concentric rows of decoration occasionally appears. It is best represented on kraters, among the large shapes; on cups and bobbins, among vases with a circular format; and on alabastra. The iconography of this alabastron resembles that of many pyxides (boxes with lids)—the confinement of the home and the seductions of the world beyond.

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