Terracotta mastoid skyphos

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The mastoid skyphos is a type of drinking vessels named for its characteristic breast-like shape. Between about 540 and 500 B.C. Greek vase-painters placed eyes mainly on drinking vessels, probably because they were apotropaic (intended to ward off evil), or so that the cup would take on the appearance of a mask when the drinker raised it to his lips. This type of vase was imported in large numbers into 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