Terracotta neck-pelike (wine jar)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Musical contests: obverse, kithara player; reverse, youth singing to double flute The platforms on which the performers stand indicate that they are participating in musical competitions. The figure on the obverse holds a kithara, the type of lyre used for performances. His pose and the wreath he wears suggest that he may already have won. The figures on the reverse are entirely absorbed, the flute player within himself, the boy projecting toward his audience.

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