Marble lamp

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragment of a marble lamp; in the panels, pairs of confronted sphinxes, sirens, and griffins; on the nozzles, pairs of lions, rams' heads, and birds perched atop lotus flowers growing from palmettes. The sides are decorated in low relief with pairs of sphinxes, griffins, and sirens. The nozzles have pairs of lions, rams' heads, and birds standing on lotus flowers. (The large fragment with rams' heads and the upper part of the griffins has been lent by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, L.1974.44.)

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