Marble head from a herm

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Copy of a Greek marble herm of ca. 450–425 B.C. The messenger god Hermes was closely associated with boundaries, and his protective image in the form of a bearded head set on a rectangular stone shaft was placed at doorways and at strategic points along the roadside. This beautiful head gives a sense of the serene grandeur that marked images of Zeus during the high classical period. The most famous of these was the gigantic gold and ivory statue of Zeus at Olympia, made by Phidias.

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