Shaft of a bronze thymiaterion (incense burner)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragmentary bronze originally belonged to the shaft of an incense burner similar to the more complete examples in this case (97.22.22 and 1992.262). During the fifth century B.C., the Etruscans were expanding their trade contacts throughout the Mediterranean world. The man in Persian costume is an unusual expression of the Etruscan interest in the exotic.

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