Marble portrait of a man from a funerary relief

Marble portrait of a man from a funerary relief

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This head from a funerary relief probably represents a freedman, or former slave, who achieved prosperity after obtaining his freedom. Such reliefs showing busts of family members within a window-like frame were often set into the outer wall of a family's funerary building.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble portrait of a man from a funerary reliefMarble portrait of a man from a funerary reliefMarble portrait of a man from a funerary reliefMarble portrait of a man from a funerary reliefMarble portrait of a man from a funerary relief

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.