Bronze hydria (water jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The elegant ovoid shape of this vase and the inclusion of a figural relief under the vertical handle are found on most bronze hydriae of the fourth century B.C. Here the decoration is particularly refined. Inlays of silver and niello (a black alloy of sulfur, silver, copper, and lead) animated the egg-and-dart band on the lip and the leaves on the foot. The relief shows a winged Eros arranging his hair in a mirror. He leans on a small statue of a woman. It imitates the rigid stance and stiff drapery found on Archaic figures of the sixth century B.C. The support forms an interesting contrast to the figure of Eros, which reflects the taste for somewhat effeminate male figures in curvacious, languid poses that marked full-scale sculpture of the period.

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