Bronze figure of a recumbent lion

Bronze figure of a recumbent lion

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The lion figure is sensitively executed and likely adorned a larger object, perhaps a cauldron or a brazier, a low cylindrical vessel that was associated with ritual offerings and banqueting and frequently found in Etruscan tombs.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze figure of a recumbent lionBronze figure of a recumbent lionBronze figure of a recumbent lionBronze figure of a recumbent lionBronze figure of a recumbent lion

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.