Over-lifesize bearded head wearing a conical helmet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The beard assumes a roughly rectangular shape. It is composed of four smooth strands separated by incised lines and rounded off at the bottom. The lips show a faint smile. The short wide nose and the stiff mouth have been partially restored in plaster. The eyeballs, that which protrude more at the top than below, are in the shape of half-moons; the arch of the eyebrows follows that of the upper eyelids. Two earrings were probably attached to each schematic and partially broken earlobe. The very flat forehead is partly covered by the helmet, the peak of which curves in at the back of the head, that which is broken.

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