Painted limestone funerary stele with a woman in childbirth

Painted limestone funerary stele with a woman in childbirth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The dying woman leans back, supported on either side by an attendant. Her torso and arms are naked, while two garments—one reddish and one pink—cover her lower body. The composition and subject of the painting derive from Classical Greek grave reliefs. This stele was found in the same underground tomb as the adjacent tomb marker and it probably once served as a funerary monument above ground.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Painted limestone funerary stele with a woman in childbirthPainted limestone funerary stele with a woman in childbirthPainted limestone funerary stele with a woman in childbirthPainted limestone funerary stele with a woman in childbirthPainted limestone funerary stele with a woman in childbirth

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.