Fragment of a marble relief from a funerary monument

Fragment of a marble relief from a funerary monument

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

It has been suggested that this relief once decorated a state funerary monument erected in honor of Athenian soldiers fallen in battle. The scene at the far right end is preserved, with soldiers falling, escaping, or lying dead. In the missing section, horsemen may have filled the entire height of the panel. An indication of a cliff is visible in the empty space above the raised shield.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragment of a marble relief from a funerary monumentFragment of a marble relief from a funerary monumentFragment of a marble relief from a funerary monumentFragment of a marble relief from a funerary monumentFragment of a marble relief from a funerary monument

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.