Limestone funerary stele with banquet scene

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A young man wearing a chiton, a himation, and a thick vegetal wreath on his head reclines on a couch. The wreath, now heavily restored, is made of leaves and berries. The left arm is missing, as is the right hand that clasped the hand of another young man seated at the end of the couch. He wears the same garments and has the same face, but his wreath forms a roll around his head and he wears a ring on the left index finger. In front of the couch, on a three-legged table is set a dish with a loaf of bread and three pieces of fruit.

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