Fragmentary marble grave stele of a hoplite (foot soldier)

Fragmentary marble grave stele of a hoplite (foot soldier)

Aristokles

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fragment preserves part of the bare feet of the hoplite and the lower end of the left greave (shin guard) with its lining and three ridges of the articulation of the calf muscle. The shaft at the right edge is the end of the warrior's spear. The inscription on the ground line gives the conclusion of a personal name and the conventional verb for made [it or me]. The subject, the sensitive articulation, and the inscription associate this work with others signed by Aristokles.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragmentary marble grave stele of a hoplite (foot soldier)Fragmentary marble grave stele of a hoplite (foot soldier)Fragmentary marble grave stele of a hoplite (foot soldier)Fragmentary marble grave stele of a hoplite (foot soldier)Fragmentary marble grave stele of a hoplite (foot soldier)

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.