Terracotta funerary plaque

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Prothesis (laying out of the dead); below, chariot race In the latter sixth century B.C., the elaborate series of funerary plaques set into the walls of rectangular tombs were replaced by single plaques with holes for attachment. The chariot race, a recurring theme in Attic funerary art, may evoke the funeral games held in honor of legendary heroes, such as those in book 23 of the Iliad, when Achilles honored his deceased friend Patroklos.

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