Two terracotta busts

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

These busts, identified as Persephone or possibly Demeter, depict a goddess wearing a polos (headdress). As is typical of such Sicilian terracottas, they do not represent the figure's arms or breasts, but the face and the hair with its streaming locks and curls are powerfully rendered. Originally, they were adorned with earrings, as indicated by the holes in the ear lobes. They were probably painted and gilded and were presumably set up as votive offerings in sanctuaries.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art