Limestone pediment from a funerary stele (shaft)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the center two women stand tearing their hair in mourning. They are flanked by lions and diminutive figures that may represent a Master of the Animals, known in Near Eastern art, or else the Egyptian god Bes. An inscription on the lower edge reads: "I am Aristokretes, my brothers set [this] down in memory of good deeds that I once did well."

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