Marble stele (grave marker) of Phainippe

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An inscription identifies the deceased as Phainippe. She holds a mirror in her left hand while the servant girl before her carries a casket and a small box. The servant's dress, with sleeves but no belt, reflects an eastern style that places her origins in Thrace or Asia Minor. The ingredients of this scene are the same as those on the many classical vases showing women at home. It is the tomb monument and the sober tone that give the established domestic iconography its special significance.

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