Marble head of a youth

Marble head of a youth

Polykleitos

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Copy of a Greek bronze statue of ca. 450 B.C. attributed to Polykleitos This head is associated with the statue of a nude athlete who probably held a diskos. The famous Greek sculptor Polykleitos sought rigorous, mathematically based proportions in his figures. "Perfection comes about little by little through many numbers" he is reported to have stated. His attention to the smallest details can be seen in the precise design of each lock of hair on this head.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.