Pair of gold earrings with an Egyptian Atef crown set with stones and glass

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the Ptolemaic reign of Egypt (323-31 B.C.), Egyptian motifs were fashionable in Greek jewelry and were sometimes reproduced faithfully or were more freely adapted as in these fine earrings. The upper element, embodying the hook, features an Egyptianizing crown composed of a sun-disk in a translucent stone surmounted by twin feathers rendered with opaque black and white glass. All settings are trimmed with gold beading. Satellite glass beads (red and white on one earring, red and green on the other) are wired below. A triangular sheet ornamented with granules partially conceals the hinge holding the pendant. Beneath the crown is a heart-shaped pendant with a red stone in the center, bordered by a band of black and white glass arranged in a saw-tooth design and set in gold cloisons edged with beading. Two glass beads are wired below, while a third, now missing, was secured between reel- and cone-shaped moldings at the bottom. Gold sheeting backs all the settings.

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