Fragment of a limestone relief with enthroned couple

Fragment of a limestone relief with enthroned couple

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The scene comprised of three fragments may symbolize the journey of the deceased to the Underworld. To the left, 1996.151.1, are Hades and Persephone enthroned; at center, 1996.151.2, the standing figure may be Orpheus, and to the right, 1996.305, Hermes, who conducted the souls of the dead to Hades, takes the hand of a woman dressed in a chiton, with her himation (cloak) pulled over her head and around her waist. She stands in front of a cave-like opening that represents the entrance to the Underworld. Such reliefs are known to have been popular on funerary monuments at Tarentum.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragment of a limestone relief with enthroned coupleFragment of a limestone relief with enthroned coupleFragment of a limestone relief with enthroned coupleFragment of a limestone relief with enthroned coupleFragment of a limestone relief with enthroned couple

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.