Terracotta statuette of a teacher and a pupil

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The old man seated on a stool writes on a tablet that rests on his lap and looks toward the child to see if he is attentive. The group may simply represent a schoolmaster with a pupil, but the satyr-like appearance of the teacher may also indicate that this is a representation of Silenos, father of the satyrs, instructing the child Dionysos.

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