Terracotta statuette of a standing girl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the late fourth century B.C., children were no longer represented as miniature adults but rather were given childlike proportions and features. This little girl is dressed like a grown-up in a chiton and a himation (cloak) wrapped around her upper body. Her hair is in the twisted rolls of the so-called melon coiffure that was fashionable for ladies. The carefully detailed drapery folds with varying thickness and depth resemble metalwork and mark this as an early figurine from the sophisticated workshops of Athens itself, where this type of figurine was first developed.

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