Fragmentary silver bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The tondo depicts and Egyptian ruler slaying a captive enemy; behind the ruler stands a servant with a fan. The narrative in the outer zone has a counterpart on a bowl from Praeneste in Italy. The story concerns a king's hunting expedition outside his city and his rescue by a falcon-winged deity. Considerable discussion has not elucidated whether it is a Near Eastern tale or a Greek saga about a hero such as Herakles presented with Levantine iconography.

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