Marble head of Apollo with fragment of his hand

Marble head of Apollo with fragment of his hand

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Roman adaptation of a Greek work of the 4th century B.C., known as the Apollo Lykeios A celebrated bronze statue of Apollo, standing at rest with his hand on his head, stood throughout antiquity in the Lykeion, a large open area just outside the walls of Athens that was devoted to athletics and philosophical discussion. The graceful pose was later adopted for other statues of Apollo, such as this small-scale work with almost feminine features and hair style.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble head of Apollo with fragment of his handMarble head of Apollo with fragment of his handMarble head of Apollo with fragment of his handMarble head of Apollo with fragment of his handMarble head of Apollo with fragment of his hand

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.