Silver-gilt cup (one of a pair)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The cups are decorated on the interior with an outer band of gilding engraved with ivy leaves and tendrils and, within a star pattern, a central medallion depicting Dionysos, the god of wine, with his customary attribute, an ivy-tipped thyrsos (staff). Such decoration is highly appropriate for a pair of drinking cups. Unusually, their bowls were hammered from thin sheets of silver rather than cast, making them lightweight and easy to use.

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