Bronze cuirass (breastplate)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Recent study of this "bell-shaped" bronze cuirass has led to its reassignment as a product of the Hallstatt culture (ancient Celtic culture), situated in the area of the Alps north of present-day Italy, rather than of Etruscan manufacture. The front and back pieces, that are hinged together, render male anatomy in a stylized pattern of embossed knobs and rows of dots, reflecting particularly strong influence from Mediterranean counterparts.

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