Terracotta hydria (water jar)

Iliupersis Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Woman at a tomb Although funerary scenes abound in South Italian vase-painting, few depict activities at a grave site. In a rare exception, this vase shows a woman tying a fillet around the pillar-shaped monument while the two others pour a libation and prepare to place a wreath. The type of grave marker and the dedications are comparable to those associated with Athenian lekythoi (oil jars) and stelai, except for the prominent pomegranates here.

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