Limestone male figure

Limestone male figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is possible that the head and body did not originally belong to the same work. The articulation of each part, however, testifies to the first influences of Greek sculpture on that of Cyprus. In contrast to the monumental head, 74.51.2857, all details of this figure's head are executed in great detail. The smiling lips, moreover, animate the musculature of the whole face. The arms at the sides recall the Greek kouroi, and the differentiation of the undergarment and cloak show an awareness of three-dimensional texture as opposed to two-dimensional patterning.

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.