Sardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagle

Sardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Despite its fragmentary condition this cameo still displays the fine quality of its workmanship. The eagle's feathers and Jupiter's torso and bearded face are carved in exquisite detail against an almost transparent background. The imagery of the Father of the Gods flying through the heavens astride an eagle was adapted for use in Roman official art to depict scenes of apotheosis. This was the procedure by which emperors were deified; their ascent up to heaven was marked at the state funeral by the release of an eagle that symbolically carried the spirit of the deceased emperor up to the heavens.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagleSardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagleSardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagleSardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagleSardonyx cameo fragment with Jupiter astride an eagle

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.