Terracotta female figure

Terracotta female figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Whether or not they depict a divinity, figurines of the "goddess with uplifted arms" were introduced into Cyprus probably from Crete during the eleventh century B.C. The deity associated with such representations is one of fertility, later known as Astarte-Aphrodite. The image is elaborately dressed and embellished with a pendant around her neck; on her head she wore a diadem, now broken. The piece is wheel-made and hollow.

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.