Porphyry basin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Stone basins such as this served as bathing tubs in one or another of the large imperial baths with which Rome was furnished. This example, although undecorated, provides a good impression of the richness and extravagance of imperial patronage. Porphyry was regarded as a stone that had special associations with the emperor, because of its purple color and also because of the great expense of quarrying, transporting, and carving it. Most of the surviving Roman porphyry tubs are to be found in Rome, where they were reused later as sarcophagi in early Christian times.

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