Terracotta statuette of a "temple boy"

Terracotta statuette of a "temple boy"

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Votive "temple boy" figures are more common in limestone, and small terracotta such as this are relatively rare. Various interpretations have been put on the purpose of the figures, but it seems likely that they were placed in temples to mark a rite of passage in the boy's life and secure for him divine protection. But, whatever the meaning of the figures, it is clear that they represent a Cypriot custom that drives not form the Greek world but form that of the Near East.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta statuette of a "temple boy"Terracotta statuette of a "temple boy"Terracotta statuette of a "temple boy"Terracotta statuette of a "temple boy"Terracotta statuette of a "temple boy"

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.