Gold ring with intaglio of seated woman and flying Eros

Gold ring with intaglio of seated woman and flying Eros

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The bezel of this ring has an exquisitely detailed intaglio of a woman approached by Eros. The woman is seated on a stool, one turned leg of which is visible. Her hair is bound up in a netlike sakkos. She wears earrings, a necklace, and, on her right wrist, a double bracelet. A belted chiton covers her upper arms, and a himation is bunched around her waist, covering her legs. The fabric's folds are rendered in parallel ridges, organized to clarify the direction of the drapery as well as to reveal the forms of the body. The woman holds a frond in her right hand. Eros flies up toward her face, touching her right shoulder with one hand and raising a wreath to her head with the other. Such a scene was fairly common on this type of ring, which was made to be decorative rather than to serve primarily as a signet. Both the subject and the rendering are also closely related to the work of contemporary Attic vase painters, who often showed Eros with either Aphrodite or a bride being prepared for her nuptials. The composition of the figures together with the fine details and the impression of sculptural weight make this a diminutive masterpiece of the high Classical period.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gold ring with intaglio of seated woman and flying ErosGold ring with intaglio of seated woman and flying ErosGold ring with intaglio of seated woman and flying ErosGold ring with intaglio of seated woman and flying ErosGold ring with intaglio of seated woman and flying Eros

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.