Limestone funerary monument of a woman

Limestone funerary monument of a woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The deceased woman is accompanied by a servant girl who holds a jewelry chest in her right hand; a round object that resembles a mirror hangs from her left arm. The tight curls that frame the woman's face were made fashionable in the court of the Flavian emperors at Rome toward the end of the first century A.D. The face of the plinth on which the servant stands is inscribed: "Zoilos of Golgoi made [it]."


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone funerary monument of a womanLimestone funerary monument of a womanLimestone funerary monument of a womanLimestone funerary monument of a womanLimestone funerary monument of a woman

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.