Bronze rod tripod stand

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The tripod stands on feline-paw feet. Atop the central rod of each leg is a palmette, and above this, on the upper ring, a couchant sphinx. Large horse protomes, which includes the forelegs as well as the head, decorate the upper rim above each of the inverted U-shaped intermediate rods. Below each horse protome is a lotos blossom. The stand would have supported a bronze vessel. Rod tripod stands have a long history in the eastern Mediterranean region. The earliest examples occurred on Cyprus in the thirteenth century B.C., and the type continued to be produced there and elsewhere in the succeeding centuries. The Cypriot version has a wide distribution: it has been found on Cyprus, Crete, the Cyclades, mainland Greece, Sardinia, and Italy. This stand is an early example of a later, ornate type of Greek manufacturing. Cast in several pieces and then soldered and jointed together, it is a highly accomplished piece of metalwork. A related stand from Metapontom in the Berlin Staatliche Museums is among the few other known complete examples.

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