Terracotta figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Man or monkey? The distinction is minimal in this spontaneous, engaging work. Seated with one foot over the other, the figure is eating or smelling what is probably a piece of fruit. Although Cypriot terracottas are often summarily executed, they clearly represent a medium that was used to capture a momentary or unusual subject, just as today we might make a snapshot or rapid sketch.

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