Terracotta neck-amphora (jar) with twisted handles

Terracotta neck-amphora (jar) with twisted handles

Suessula Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, combat of Greeks against Amazons Reverse, three youths This vase is complementary in its main scene to the adjacent work with which it was found. The battle scene reveals the artist's interest in action and his ease with the medium. It is particularly revealing to contrast the conventional, rather anemic palmette on the neck with the barren tree that the artist had seen first-hand.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta neck-amphora (jar) with twisted handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with twisted handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with twisted handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with twisted handlesTerracotta neck-amphora (jar) with twisted 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.