Marble funerary altar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The inscription commemorates a certain Q. Fabius Diogenes and Fabia Primigenia, who lived together for forty-seven years, and tells that the altar was set up by his freedmen, freedwomen, and household slaves. Diogenes himself was probably a freed slave who had acquired a certain wealth and position. This is reflected in the ornamentation of the altar, which is a deliberate echo of imagery used in imperial art of the Julio-Claudian period. The heavy garland suspended from rams’ heads derives from the kind of decoration found on the walls of public sanctuaries. The three types of birds surrounding the garland were all familiar from Augustan monuments: at the center, an eagle, bird of Jupiter, ruler of the gods; at the corners, swans, birds of Apollo, patron god of the emperor; and below the garland, two songbirds, symbols of bountiful nature.

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