Limestone male figure

Limestone male figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This figure exemplifies a well-established type that appears in Cypriot sculpture at the end of the seventh century B.C. The men are always under lifesize, beardless, and dressed in a close-fitting tunic, brief loincloth often decorated with rosettes, and headband with rosettes. The example here also wears earrings and bracelets. The identity of these figures is difficult to define precisely, but they are probably young men of high rank in some form of service to a deity. In this piece, the head may not belong to the body, but it is typologically accurate.

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.