Limestone head of a bearded male wearing a conical helmet

Limestone head of a bearded male wearing a conical helmet

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The rounded beard is smooth, with the central part jutting forward. The face is thin, the features delicate; the expression is smiling. There is a small mustache above the upper lip. The eyes, with slightly protruding eyeballs, turn inward; the relatively short, thick eyebrows are high-set. On the forehead, a smooth band indicates the locks that show underneath the helmet, the cheekpieces of which are clearly outlined.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone head of a bearded male wearing a conical helmetLimestone head of a bearded male wearing a conical helmetLimestone head of a bearded male wearing a conical helmetLimestone head of a bearded male wearing a conical helmetLimestone head of a bearded male wearing a conical helmet

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.