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The Collection Greek & Roman Antiquities

Greek Black-Figure Amphora, 510 B.C.
Ceramic
Tampa Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds provided by Friends of the Arts and Pavilion XV 2000.43

Greek Black-Figure Amphora, 510 B.C.
CeramicTampa Museum of Art. Museum purchase with funds provided by Friends of the Arts and Pavilion XV 2000.43

Black-figure/White-ground Kalpis (Hydria)
Painter of Vatican G-49
Attic, about 490-480 BC
Ceramic
Tampa Museum of Art. Joseph Veach Noble Collection 1986.36

Black-figure/White-ground Kalpis (Hydria)
Painter of Vatican G-49 Attic, about 490-480 BCCeramicTampa Museum of Art. Joseph Veach Noble Collection 1986.36

Shown on the white ground panel of this vessel is the moment when the legendary Athenian hero Theseus delivers the coup de grâce that destroys the evil Minotaur. The story glorifies the hero, and by association emphasizes the greatness of the Greek city of Athens. To the Greeks the story also served as an allegory for the abstract concept of the superiority of civilized society over barbarism.

Apeiranthos-type Human Figurine
Early Cycladic II, about 2700-2200 B.C.
Marble
Tampa Museum of Art. Gift of The Sahlman Family 2005.9

Apeiranthos-type Human Figurine
Early Cycladic II, about 2700-2200 B.C.MarbleTampa Museum of Art. Gift of The Sahlman Family 2005.9

The ancient Greeks called the small islands of the central Aegean Sea Cyclades because they imagined them as scattered in a cyclos, or circle, around the sacred island Delos, the ancient sanctuary of Apollo. Because of their proximity to Asia Minor, the Cyclades became the home of a flourishing culture between 3200 B.C. and 2000 B.C. and played a chief role in the movement of ideas and technical advances from the East to mainland Greece. Many of the Cycladic islands were blessed with an abundance of white, almost iridescent marble and it was during the early Bronze Age that the art of stone cutting emerged. What truly characterized this civilization were its distinctive symbolic artifacts known as Cycladic figurines. The elemental beauty in these simple, abstract, female idols is readily apparent. Many of them were found in graves or tombs leading some to believe they were companions to the dead. Were they meant to represent mortals, honor a deity, or connect to an eternal mother goddess?

Chalandriani Variety Female Figure
Early Cycladic II, about 2300-2200 B.C.
Marble
Tampa Museum of Art. Gift of The Sahlman Family 2005.10

Chalandriani Variety Female Figure
Early Cycladic II, about 2300-2200 B.C.MarbleTampa Museum of Art. Gift of The Sahlman Family 2005.10

Early Bronze Age sculptors of the Cycladic Islands in the Greek Aegean Sea created simple, abstract female figurines from native white marble. The original meaning of the statuettes is not known; they have been found both in tombs and in village homes. The austere elegance of these figures was an inspiration for several modern artists working in the early twentieth century.

Oinochoe
Greek, 4th century B.C.
Core-formed glass
Tampa Museum of Art. Joseph Veach Noble Collection 1986.153

Oinochoe
Greek, 4th century B.C.Core-formed glassTampa Museum of Art. Joseph Veach Noble Collection 1986.153

One-handled Bottle
Eastern Mediterranean, 3rd century A.D.
Mold-blown glass
Tampa Museum of Art. Joseph Veach Noble Collection 1986.157

One-handled Bottle
Eastern Mediterranean, 3rd century A.D.Mold-blown glassTampa Museum of Art. Joseph Veach Noble Collection 1986.157

The earliest glass containers come from the Eastern Mediterranean and date back to the second millennium BC. Highly prized by the wealthy elite, glass was precious and rare until the advent of the blowpipe during the Roman Period (1st century B.C.). Although coloring agents were often added to ancient glass, the iridescent, metallic coating on this small vessel was not intentional. It is the result of a chemical reaction of the glass with the soil in which it was buried.

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