Marble statue of Aphrodite

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The goddess of love stands in an exaggerated hipshot pose. She wears a thin chiton girded just below the breasts, and her himation (cloak), which must have been draped over the missing left arm, falls in thick folds between her legs. This figure is one of the many variants created in the Hellenistic period of a statue type known as the Tiepolo Aphrodite. A major over-life-sized version and numerous statuettes have been found in Athens; many examples also come from the island of Rhodes.

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