Marble vase with high foot and four lug handles

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This type of vessel is also known as a kandila, named after modern oil lamps of similar shape that illuminate Greek Orthodox churches. Produced in marble and clay, kandilai typically held liquids, such as oil or wine. Cords strung through the pierced lugs around the body could be used to hang the vase or attach a lid. Frequently found in tombs with marble figures, the vessels may have served a function in funerary rituals.

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