Limestone funerary cippus (tomb marker)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Only one other funerary cippus of this type is known, but the conventions used are similar to those of Egyptian painted portraits. The woman portrayed here is named in the Greek inscription as Kratea. In an attempt to capture her individuality, she is represented with rather bony and irregular features, and her hair is parted down the middle, a convention that seems to imply that she was elderly. Her jewelry is meant as an indicator of her wealth and status.

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