Terracotta stemless kylix (drinking cup)

Marlay Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Interior, symposium (drinking party) Exterior, obverse and reverse, seated man and woman with phiale (libation bowl) While the execution is not refined, the composition of the cup is artful indeed. The interior is noteworthy for the use of the tondo as a porthole and for the frontal view of the symposiasts. The libation scene on each side of the exterior presents wine in a different context. Both the symposium and the libation were significant institutions in the life of an Athenian citizen.

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