Terracotta fragment of a votive relief

Terracotta fragment of a votive relief

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hades abducting Persephone When Hades, the god of the underworld, carried Persephone to his kingdom of the dead, Demeter, her mother, brought all growth on earth to a standstill until Persephone was allowed to return to the earth for part of each year. Since antiquity, this myth has been understood as an allegory for the seasonal cycle of vegetation.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta fragment of a votive reliefTerracotta fragment of a votive reliefTerracotta fragment of a votive reliefTerracotta fragment of a votive reliefTerracotta fragment of a votive relief

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.