Fragmentary silver bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The focus of the banquet scene in the outer frieze is an offering table with a bowl probably filled with fruit. It is flanked by two reclining figures. On the right is a figure wearing an Egyptian crown, above whom an inscription may signify "king." Behind him appears a flute player. On the left of the table is a "queen" with an Egyptian wig, above whom are letters that certainly include the prefix "Cypro-" and give her name or title, perhaps Kypromedousa, "protectress of Cyprus." Behind her, from right to left, come three musicians, a large amphora, a table with vases and ladles, and three women bearing offerings: bowls, the legs of sheep or goats, and trussed geese. The banquet iconography, combining Egyptian and Phoenician features, indicates that the bowl would not have been a temple dedication.

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