Bronze mirror with a support in the form of a draped woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The integration of three-dimensional figures into the design of a functional object is a hallmark of Greek art. A variety of elements–human, animal, and mythological–animate this mirror disk. A statuette of a woman standing on a base supports the mirror. Her simple woolen peplos falls in columnar folds. Her serious expression and quiet stance are typical of the restrained early Classical statues that were created from about 480 to 450 B.C. Two winged Erotes hover about her head. A hound chases a hare up either side of the disk; a siren, part bird and part woman, perches on the top.

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