Terracotta amphora (jar)

Antimenes Painter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Obverse, Athena and Herakles in the gigantomachy (battle of gods and giants) Reverse, Poseidon, Leto, Apollo, Artemis, Dionysos On the lip, obverse and reverse, chariot races Of particular interest on this vase is the frieze of racing chariots on the lip. Subordinate bands of figural decoration were introduced at various times and on various shapes in Athenian vase-painting. At the end of the sixth century B.C. and in the early fifth, decoration on the lip occasionally appears, especially on amphorae type A. The most significant instance of this feature in the Museum's collection appears on the amphora signed by the potter Andokides and displayed in the Greek galleries on the main floor.

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