Terracotta Panathenaic prize amphora (jar)

Painter of Boulogne 441

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, Athena Reverse, chariot race From the second quarter of the sixth century B.C. on, victors in the contests for the Panathenaic festival in Athens were awarded a standardized vase containing one metretes (about forty-two quarts) of olive oil from sacred olive groves in Attica. The official decoration on the front was a picture of a statue of Athena, fully armed, standing between two columns. The event for which the vase was awarded was illustrated on the back. This vase was the prize of a victor in the prestigious chariot race.

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