Terracotta group: scene of punishment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Six figures are represented in a narrative situation; five should probably be thought of as seated. The main personage in the center holds a staff in his right hand and wears a conical headdress. A figure to his right holds a small animal, while one to his left has a shield and scabbard. In front of the cluster of onlookers there is someone lying face down and being beaten with a stick by another person. The subject has prompted considerable discussion and been interpreted as a scene of punishment, partly by analogy with the detail on the Shield of Achilles described by Homer.

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