Terracotta statuette of a male figure holding the head and neck of a mask or image

Terracotta statuette of a male figure holding the head and neck of a mask or image

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This clay statuette surely has to do with a performance of some kind. The standing figure is probably wearing a mask and holding either another mask or the head of an image in human form. Among Archaic statuettes from Cyprus, representations of many different types of performers are common.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta statuette of a male figure holding the head and neck of a mask or imageTerracotta statuette of a male figure holding the head and neck of a mask or imageTerracotta statuette of a male figure holding the head and neck of a mask or imageTerracotta statuette of a male figure holding the head and neck of a mask or imageTerracotta statuette of a male figure holding the head and neck of a mask or image

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.