Marble funerary statues of a maiden and a little girl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Toward the end of the fourth century B.C., Attic grave monuments became increasingly elaborate. Freestanding figures such as these were often placed within a shallow, roofed, marble structure that was open at the front. The older girl shown here must have died in her teens, before marriage, for she wears her mantle pinned at the shoulders and hanging down her back. This distinctive manner of dress was apparently reserved for young virgins who had the honor of leading processions to sacrifice, while carrying a basket containing barley, fillets, and the sacrificial knife. Being a kanephoros (basket bearer) was the highest honor possible for a maiden in the years just preceding marriage, and this girl is represented wearing the festival dress.

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