Lower part of a marble relief with two goddesses

Lower part of a marble relief with two goddesses

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Adaptation of the Great Eleusinian Relief of ca. 450–425 B.C. The two goddesses are closely related to the figures of Demeter and Persephone on the Great Eleusinian Relief, a cast of which is displayed nearby. The altarlike incense burner between them must be an addition of the Roman copyist. This relief is said to have been found at Eleusis.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lower part of a marble relief with two goddessesLower part of a marble relief with two goddessesLower part of a marble relief with two goddessesLower part of a marble relief with two goddessesLower part of a marble relief with two goddesses

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.