Bronze candelabrum

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This exquisite candelabrum, probably made at Vulci, was assembled from six solid-cast elements. The pieces are held together by two cross-pins and a small amount of lead-tin solder near the top. Candles similar to modern wax varieties would have been stuck vertically into the four prongs at the top of the fluted shaft. The finial depicts Hercle and Menrva (Greek: Herakles and Athena), a popular mythical pair frequently represented in both Etruscan and Greek art at this time.

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