Tin-bronze scepter head

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The scepter head is topped by three mold-made bull's heads. Bull's heads are common in the art of Late Bronze Age Cyprus. The eyes are inlaid with glass that is not original. On the forehead of each bull is a crescent-shaped inlay; two are carnelian and one is green glass paste. Another tubular piece of the scepter, now missing, was originally above the three bull's heads.

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