Limestone column capital

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gift of the Aboutaam Family, 1995 (1995.95, .291) Purchase, Alexander and Helene Abraham Gift, 1996 (1996.26) The capitals, carved in crisp and striking detail, are a variant of the early Hellenistic Corinthian capital. The figure of a double-bodied sphinx dominates front and back, and large palmettes ornament the sides. They are typical of the architectural decoration found on Tarantine naiskoi (funerary monuments). On one, the figure of the sphinx is unusually large, leaving little of the original Corinthian acanthus-leaf design visible. All that remains of a third capital is a pair of volutes from one corner, showing the elaborate openwork that accompanied the figural decoration.

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