Marble statuette of a male figure with shaggy hair

Marble statuette of a male figure with shaggy hair

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Copy or variant of a Greek statue of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C. The figure is shown in a spiraling upward movement, perhaps in dance or blowing on an instrument. Tritons, with their long fish tails, often are shown with wild hair and powerful torsos. This could be such a sea creature, possibly blowing on a conch shell.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble statuette of a male figure with shaggy hairMarble statuette of a male figure with shaggy hairMarble statuette of a male figure with shaggy hairMarble statuette of a male figure with shaggy hairMarble statuette of a male figure with shaggy hair

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.