Marble and limestone statue of an attendant

Marble and limestone statue of an attendant

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This young woman held an object in her right hand, perhaps a fan. The statue was originally likely part of a funerary group of an aristocratic woman with her attendant that would have served as a tomb marker. It was not uncommon during the Hellenistic period in Southern Italy to carve the heads of significant commissions in imported marble and use local limestone for the bodies. The Greek city of Tarentum had a particularly distinctive sculptural tradition of limestone funerary monuments, other fragmentary examples of which can be seen in the nearby case for luxury arts of Southern Italy.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble and limestone statue of an attendantMarble and limestone statue of an attendantMarble and limestone statue of an attendantMarble and limestone statue of an attendantMarble and limestone statue of an attendant

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.