Marble votive relief fragment of goddesses, mother, nurse, and infant

Marble votive relief fragment of goddesses, mother, nurse, and infant

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Childbirth in antiquity often resulted in the death of both the mother and infant. This small relief, which shows the mother and child alive post-partum, was presumably an offering to a healing deity such as Asklepios or Hygieia, in thanks for protection during this particularly dangerous rite of passage.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble votive relief fragment of goddesses, mother, nurse, and infantMarble votive relief fragment of goddesses, mother, nurse, and infantMarble votive relief fragment of goddesses, mother, nurse, and infantMarble votive relief fragment of goddesses, mother, nurse, and infantMarble votive relief fragment of goddesses, mother, nurse, and infant

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.