Limestone statue of a man holding a mask in the form of a bull's head

Limestone statue of a man holding a mask in the form of a bull's head

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

From the Late Bronze Age onward bull's heads played a role in certain religious rituals on Cyprus. Actual skulls with openings at the back to be worn as masks, terracotta bull's heads, and figures wearing bull's heads as masks have been found on the island, suggesting that some deity was worshiped in this manner. This statue probably represents a priest holding such a mask, which he would have worn during some solemn rite, perhaps for a god associated with fertility.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone statue of a man holding a mask in the form of a bull's headLimestone statue of a man holding a mask in the form of a bull's headLimestone statue of a man holding a mask in the form of a bull's headLimestone statue of a man holding a mask in the form of a bull's headLimestone statue of a man holding a mask in the form of a bull's head

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.