Marble strigilated sarcophagus

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sarcophagus was furnished with a lid and placed in a monumental tomb, probably in a niche or on a ledge, with its plain back against the wall. The ferocious-looking lions' heads stand out powerfully against the restrained, almost soothing effect of the strigilated panels on the front. Thisdistinctive type of decoration is restricted largely to sarcophagi made in Rome. The marble is Proconnesian, imported from northwestern Asia Minor.

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