365 Days at the Met

May 1, 2018 It's vases, vases everywhere in galley 161, but their interest value is redeemed for me by the fact that most were produced by Greeks living in southern Italy. Maybe it is my imagination, but many of the images seem to possess a vigor that was less noticeable to me in works from Greece proper;  the use of more white in the palette also makes them distinctive. I'm struck, too, by a group of small terracotta statuettes depicting stock figures from Greek theater. These were actually found in Greece, and why they're in this gallery, whose theme is Greek expansion into Italy, isn't altogether clear to me. But the figures of comic actors that show old men really are funny! They are short and bearded, with protruding bellies, and their penises and balls peek out from under their tunics. One has a finger in his mouth, another seems to be stifling a giggle (or maybe a yawn).  Today's object, though, isn't Greek at all but was made by the Daunians,