Bronze basin with six legs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Such basins, decorated with abstract horsemen and birds, are especially common at Vetulonia, a probable site of manufacture. Most examples have only three legs and a basin without handles. Because the six legs on this piece are of two distinct types, it is likely that the object is really a pastiche composed of disparate ancient elements: two sets of solid-cast legs from about 700–650 B.C. and a handled basin from the sixth century B.C.

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