Limestone cornice with a lion’s head

Limestone cornice with a lion’s head

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fragment belongs to a cornice (sima), possibly where it meets the slope of a pediment. In addition to the moldings, there is a competently rendered lion’s head in relief.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone cornice with a lion’s headLimestone cornice with a lion’s headLimestone cornice with a lion’s headLimestone cornice with a lion’s headLimestone cornice with a lion’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.