Marble portrait bust of a woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the early third century A.D., some marble busts became so deep as to be almost half-statues and often included the arms, giving the image a lively appearance. This young woman has a hair arrangement made popular by Julia Domna, wife of the emperor Septimius Severus (r. A.D. 193–211) and mother of the emperor Caracalla (r. A.D. 211–217). Parted at the center, long locks framed the face, covering the ears and falling almost to the shoulders before looping back to form a bun at the back of the head.

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