Terracotta neck-amphora (jar)

Acheloös Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, women and man at fountain house Reverse, woman and komasts (revelers) However incomplete, this vase gives a very amusing picture of life in Athens, morning and evening. The figures on the obverse are at a fountain house, indicated by the architecture, the two panther's head waterspouts, and the block below on which to place hydriai (water jars) while they are being filled. Fountain houses were places where men and women could meet casually. On the reverse, three men wreathed with ivy disport themselves around a woman. The krotala (castanets) in her hand suggest that she is a hetaira, a professional entertainer.

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