Terracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a woman

Terracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Female heads were used often as antefixes on Etruscan buildings. The head of a woman wears a simple diadem and large concave earrings. Her hair is arranged in perfectly symmetrical concave finger waves; vestiges of reddish brown color remain on the left side.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a womanTerracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a womanTerracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a womanTerracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a womanTerracotta antefix (roof tile) with head of a woman

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.