Terracotta neck-amphora (jar) with double handles

Terracotta neck-amphora (jar) with double handles

Diosphos Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, Herakles and Kerberos at the house of Hades; meaningless inscriptions Reverse, Hermes and Athena; meaningless inscriptions Kerberos, the mythical guard dog of Hades, is depicted with two heads. One head bites the loop of the leash; with the other, Kerberos catches the tail of Herakles' lion's skin in his jaws.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta neck-amphora (jar) with double handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with double handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with double handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with double handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with double handles

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.