Terracotta statuette of a woman

Terracotta statuette of a woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This lovely figure in a finely detailed linen chiton and a thin himation (cloak) probably represents a votary. She pulls the himation out to the side like the Archaic korai (statues of young maidens) from the Athenian Akropolis and may have held a bud in the pierced fingers of her left hand.

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.