Terracotta figurine of a standing female votary holding a box

Terracotta figurine of a standing female votary holding a box

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The figure is slender and lissome, with high breasts, clearly representing a young woman. The right arm is at the side, the hand grasping a long fold of drapery. Her left arm supports from beneath an open rectangular casket, showing within a row of four rings, possibly representing a wreath of flowers.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta figurine of a standing female votary holding a boxTerracotta figurine of a standing female votary holding a boxTerracotta figurine of a standing female votary holding a boxTerracotta figurine of a standing female votary holding a boxTerracotta figurine of a standing female votary holding a box

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.