Bronze ornament in the form of a seated male sphinx

Bronze ornament in the form of a seated male sphinx

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The ornament, originally clad in silver, served as a furniture attachment or, more likely, as part of a candelabrum or a stand for a censer or bowl. Egyptianizing decorative arts were especially popular in Rome in the years after the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 B.C. Other examples can be seen on the wall paintings from the villa at Boscotrecase, also displayed in this gallery.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze ornament in the form of a seated male sphinxBronze ornament in the form of a seated male sphinxBronze ornament in the form of a seated male sphinxBronze ornament in the form of a seated male sphinxBronze ornament in the form of a seated male sphinx

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.