Terracotta head of a deer

Terracotta head of a deer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This extraordinarily sensitive representation was probably a patrix, the model from which molds were taken for making figural vases in the shape of a deer's head. Such rhyta were common in Apulian pottery and can be seen among the Apulian vases nearby.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta head of a deerTerracotta head of a deerTerracotta head of a deerTerracotta head of a deerTerracotta head of a deer

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.