Terracotta alabastron (perfume vase)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Upper frieze, Herakles and centaurs Lower frieze, flutist leading procession of women The upper frieze, depicting Herakles in the company of three centaurs, is perhaps a reference to the story of the Greek hero's battle with Pholos and his fellow centaurs. The scene below has no obvious narrative connection to that one. This shape, frequently made of alabaster and copied by Corinthian potters, is rare with Etruscan potters working in Southern Etruria.

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