Terracotta statuette of a nude woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Excavated at Praisos, on Crete Mold-made terracotta figures with highly stylized triangular faces framed by wiglike hair were produced throughout the Aegean during the seventh century B.C. Today the style is aptly called Daedalic, after the mythological founder of art, Daedalos of Crete, for Crete probably introduced the style from the Near East to the Aegean. Such figures, usually fully dressed, appear in a variety of media, but large-scale limestone statues of this type were produced only on Crete.

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