Terracotta bull

Terracotta bull

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Several bull figurines of Base-Ring Ware have been found, mainly in sanctuaries but also in tombs. They date from the Late Cypriot IIC-III periods. They should be distinguished from the Base-Ring Ware rhyta (zoomorphic vases) of the same period, which are found in tombs. Some Base-Ring Ware bull figurines were also found in the Levant.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.