Fragment of a limestone relief with a tree and birds of prey

Fragment of a limestone relief with a tree and birds of prey

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The block, preserved in its full width, but broken both above and below, shows, in low relief, a tree with a narrow trunk. Branches with different kinds of leaves, some oval, some pointed, are grafted diagonally to the trunk—unless the oval ones represent fruit. Two birds, with summarily rendered wings and plumage and facing in opposite directions, stand in profile on two of these branches, now lost below the break. Their hooked beaks designate them as birds of prey. The one on the right, almost worked in sunk relief, is larger and more carefully worked.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragment of a limestone relief with a tree and birds of preyFragment of a limestone relief with a tree and birds of preyFragment of a limestone relief with a tree and birds of preyFragment of a limestone relief with a tree and birds of preyFragment of a limestone relief with a tree and birds of prey

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.