Bronze horse bit

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Solid cast, with twisted mouthpiece terminating in heavy rings that orgianlly held the guide reins. The ends are flanked with open work cheek pieces depicting stylized horses with a smaller horse standing on its croup and two small birds below. An almost identical horse bit was discovered recently in the Tomb of the Warrior of Poggio alle Croci in Volterra. Several examples of this type, with elaborate cheekpieces depicting horses and ducks, are associated with Volterra, a likely place of manufacture.

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