Silver plate

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The plate, originally part of a larger set of silver tableware, was clearly used over a prolonged period, since repeated polishing in antiquity has worn away the details of the rim decoration. On the underside are Latin inscriptions giving the names of two different owners. It was common for Romans to mark their valuable possessions in this way as a precaution against theft. The use of masks, symbols, and animals as decoration seen here was popular throughout the Imperial period.

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