Marble statue of the Diadoumenos (youth tying a fillet around his head)

Polykleitos

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 430 B.C. by Polykleitos The statue of the Diadoumenos by Polykleitos was extremely popular during the Roman period. Its beauty and fame are mentioned three times in ancient literature, and over twenty-five full-size marble copies are known. This copy was owned by the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani of Rome, who, during the first third of the seventeenth century, formed one of the earliest European collections of ancient art. Scholars had not yet identified this statue type as the Polykleitan Diadoumenos, and an incorrect head and arms were added to complete the figure. These have since been removed.

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