Fragment of the marble stele (grave marker) of a hoplite (foot soldier)
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This grave marker commemorated a soldier, who was shown facing right, holding a spear. His lower legs, protected by greaves (shin guards), are preserved. The scene in the panel below shows a warrior mounting a quadriga (four-horse chariot), while his charioteer holds the reins. Such vehicles were used by the Mycenaean Greeks of the second millennium B.C. and are described by Homer in the Iliad and the Odyssey. By the Archaic period, quadrigas were no longer used in daily life. They were driven in competition, however, for the most prestigious events at Greek games were chariot races. This scene may have been intended to recall a victory of the deceased in the apobates race in which an armed runner jumped on and off a chariot, or it may evoke the family's aristocratic lineage by depicting a legendary hero departing for the Trojan War. The panel is carved in extremely low relief; the many planes were originally differentiated with red and black paint. The greaves and spear of the large-scale figure were painted blue; the background was red. Traces of red, blue, black, and green remain on the interlaced curved lines that decorate the border of the shaft.
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.