Terracotta amphora (jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, Herakles battling a centaur Reverse, Warrior battling a centaur The warrior depicted on the reverse of the vase may be a lapith. The fight of the lapiths, a Thessalian clan usually represented in hoplite armor, and the centaurs was a common depiction in early Archaic Greek Art. The artistic representation of this battle even continued into Roman times and appears in Latin literature, including Ovid's Metamorphoses.

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