Terracotta phiale (libation bowl)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Interior, ivy leaves The phiale was used to pour libations, liquid offerings. Its size fits the hand perfectly with the middle fingers in the central hollow and the thumb at the lip. The decoration here was not executed in the traditional combination of glazed and unglazed areas. Instead, the motifs were applied in added color over the glaze before firing. The technique is named after Jan Six, a modern Dutch scholar who published an early study of it.

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