Carnelian engraved gem with a portrait of Sokrates

Carnelian engraved gem with a portrait of Sokrates

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifth century B.C. Greek philosopher Sokrates is represented reclining with one hand raised. He is bearded and bald and has the broad bulbous nose that is said to have likened him to a silenus. The type of head resembles that generally identified as a work of the early Hellenistic period, perhaps by Lysippos.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carnelian engraved gem with a portrait of SokratesCarnelian engraved gem with a portrait of SokratesCarnelian engraved gem with a portrait of SokratesCarnelian engraved gem with a portrait of SokratesCarnelian engraved gem with a portrait of Sokrates

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.