Bronze belt

Bronze belt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thin bronze belts with parallel rows of perforations for attaching leather or cloth linings were frequently worn by ancient Italic warriors. They are found in male burials from the late fifth century into the thrid century B.C. over much of Central and Southern Italy. The type represented here has elaborate solid-cast bronze clasps in the form of nude twins whose heads support a single wolf-head hook. These frequently occur in Samnite contexts and may have been produced at Tarentum (modern Taranto) in Southern Italy.


Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze beltBronze beltBronze beltBronze beltBronze belt

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.