Limestone group: banquet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Five figures are disposed around the edge of an irregular plinth. They face inward; a cutting may have held an altar or offering table. The banqueters recline on cushions, not on couches as in Greece. The central male figure is alone. On either side is a couple, a reclining male and a woman seated at his knees. The heads probably do not belong with the bodies. As with the terracotta group scenes, the Cypriot artist used all means at his disposal to render familiar subjects. The malleable clay and soft limestone facilitated his efforts.

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