Fragment of a limestone relief with two standing figures

Fragment of a limestone relief with two standing figures

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The large fragment, framed on three sides, is the right end of an oblong relief. Shows two figures standing in a frontal position at a cavelike opening which is set against the outer edge of the panel. A woman dressed in a chiton, with her himation pulled over her head and around her waist, stands quietly near the cave extending her right hand to a tall nude male figure with a cloak slung over his shoulder and a round form behind his shoulder which may represent a petasos tied around his neck. The man reaches with his right arm toward whatever was represented next to him on the right and apparently extended his other arm to hold the woman's hand. A ribbon-like form appears to flutter near his right arm and above it the remains of a rounded shape can be seen close to the upper rim of the relief. Since such reliefs are known to come from funerary monuments it is tempting to see the cave as an entrance to the Underworld. The nude figure may well have been Hermes, conductor of souls to Hades. The god is often shown wearing a wide-brimmed traveling hat, holding a deceased person by the hand.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragment of a limestone relief with two standing figuresFragment of a limestone relief with two standing figuresFragment of a limestone relief with two standing figuresFragment of a limestone relief with two standing figuresFragment of a limestone relief with two standing figures

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.