Limestone funerary stele with antithetical sphinxes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sphinxes of this gravestone, while modeled on Classical Greek prototypes, also reveal an Egyptian influence with their pose of hind legs tucked under their bodies. During the Archaic and the Classical periods, pairs of opposing sphinxes were common on funerary monuments but also may appear as guardians of heroons or shrines.

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