Marble fragment of an Ionic column capital

Marble fragment of an Ionic column capital

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragment is from a column capital whose scale is too small to be associated with the architecture of the Temple of Artemis proper. Since it was excavated within the temple site, it could belong to a votive column or to a small building such as a treasury located within the sanctuary.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble fragment of an Ionic column capitalMarble fragment of an Ionic column capitalMarble fragment of an Ionic column capitalMarble fragment of an Ionic column capitalMarble fragment of an Ionic column capital

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.