Fragment of a painted mummy shroud

Fragment of a painted mummy shroud

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragment is part of a portrait of a woman painted in tempera on a linen shroud. All that survives is a view of her hands: she wears a lot of jewelry, including a ring on every finger of her left hand. The snake-ring on her right hand finds parallels in actual gold rings, which are usually dated to the first century A.D., but this shroud is probably later.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Fragment of a painted mummy shroudFragment of a painted mummy shroudFragment of a painted mummy shroudFragment of a painted mummy shroudFragment of a painted mummy shroud

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.