Painted limestone funerary slab with a soldier and two girls

Painted limestone funerary slab with a soldier and two girls

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The soldier, in a long blue cloak, stands at the right and clasps the hand of a small girl. Behind her another girl raises her hand in a gesture of farewell. These may well represent the soldier's children, indicating that the mercenaries settled in Alexandria and raised families.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Painted limestone funerary slab with a soldier and two girlsPainted limestone funerary slab with a soldier and two girlsPainted limestone funerary slab with a soldier and two girlsPainted limestone funerary slab with a soldier and two girlsPainted limestone funerary slab with a soldier and two girls

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.