Terracotta statuette of a seated woman

Terracotta statuette of a seated woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Small figurines were made to be presented as votive gifts to a deity. It is not always clear whether they represent a god, a priest or priestess, or a person offering a gift. These rigid figures seated on thrones and wearing elaborate headdresses are probably goddesses. Hundreds of such statues were buried in trenches on the Akropolis after the Persians looted and burned Athens in 480 B.C., and it has been suggested that they represent an early cult statue of Athena.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta statuette of a seated womanTerracotta statuette of a seated womanTerracotta statuette of a seated womanTerracotta statuette of a seated womanTerracotta statuette of a seated woman

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.