Marble funerary lekythos of Kallisthenes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., memorials to the dead sometimes took the form of monumental marble lekythoi. The shape was appropriate, for the lekythos–a vase used exclusively to hold oil–played an important part in funerary preparation and ritual. The figure of Kallisthenes, whose name is inscribed, is shown in low relief clasping the hand of a seated man, while a woman raises her hand to her chin in a customary gesture of mourning.

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