Jasper statuette of a man wearing a toga

Jasper statuette of a man wearing a toga

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The toga was worn only by Roman citizens, and until A.D. 212, citizenship was restricted to the freeborn male inhabitants of Italy and a few privileged groups in the provinces. Jasper is a rare and expensive stone, so this statuette must have portrayed a prominent member of the citizen body, perhaps the emperor himself in the guise of the Princeps (First Citizen). Dowel holes indicate that the head and extremities were added, probably in another luxury material such as ivory.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Jasper statuette of a man wearing a togaJasper statuette of a man wearing a togaJasper statuette of a man wearing a togaJasper statuette of a man wearing a togaJasper statuette of a man wearing a toga

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.