Marble statue of a member of the imperial family

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This statue and the similar work, 2003.407.9 were probably part of a statuary group portraying and honoring members of the Julio-Claudian dynasty that ruled Rome from the time of Augustus to that of Nero. The stance of these partially nude figures brings to mind the canonic works of Polykleitos, one of the most famous Greek sculptors of the fifth century B.C., and was almost certainly intended to give a heroizing aura to the statues. It has been argued that the draping of the mantle around the hips and over the arm was a specific iconographic indication that the individual being honored was already deceased.

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