Marble female figure

Marble female figure

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Neolithic figures are predominately female, but their poses and anatomy vary widely. This statuette, with its voluminous lower body, represents a type undoubtedly associated with fertility and reproduction, a central concern in ancient Mediterranean cultures. Very little is known about the meaning and function of these objects. Similar figures in both stone and clay have been found in burials, settlements, and religious contexts throughout Greece, where they likely served multiple purposes.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.