Terracotta vase in the shape of a boar

Terracotta vase in the shape of a boar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thanks to a similar piece in Berlin, this one can be reconstructed as a figure of a boar standing on four legs. The mouth of the vase consisted of an opening in the rump of the animal and a lip projecting upward. The function of such a vase is difficult to define. It may have been a novelty for the entertainment of participants in a gathering.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta vase in the shape of a boarTerracotta vase in the shape of a boarTerracotta vase in the shape of a boarTerracotta vase in the shape of a boarTerracotta vase in the shape of a boar

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.