Marble cinerary chest

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Latin inscription was copied from a Roman funerary plaque and added to this chest during the 17th century. As such it bears witness to the growing awareness of and interest in epigraphy among scholars and collectors in Renaissance Italy. Until the cataloguing of ancient inscriptions began to be systematic and comprehensive in the early 19th century it was quite common for antiquities to be enhanced by the addition of false inscriptions. Indeed, examples of epigraphic forgeries are known even today.

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