Gold earring with a glass pendant in the form of a demonic mask

Gold earring with a glass pendant in the form of a demonic mask

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent colorless with greenish tinge, cobalt blue, opaque yellow and white. Hollow at back from rod, forming protruding face with rounded forehead and broad, flat beard extending downward; above, added colorless trail as suspension ring. Yellow outline to head, forming line across brow and around beard; colorless ears applied at sides; bulging eyes outlined in white with blue pupils. End of nose and proper right ear missing, and large, weathered chip on proper left side of face; pitting and iridescent weathering. Large gold hoop, circular in section, tapering towards ends fastened in a hook and loop. These pendants were used as protective amulets to ward off evil. Similar pendants are frequently represented on Cypriot votive statues and figurines, particularly "temple boys."

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gold earring with a glass pendant in the form of a demonic maskGold earring with a glass pendant in the form of a demonic maskGold earring with a glass pendant in the form of a demonic maskGold earring with a glass pendant in the form of a demonic maskGold earring with a glass pendant in the form of a demonic mask

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.