Bronze statuette of a dancer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Music and dance played a significant role in Etruscan ceremony and this figure’s movements represent the grace and dynamism of the event. This work was likely made in the bronze-making center of Vulci, in central Etruria, where craftsmen were renowned for their production of bronze vessels and other small-scale luxury objects that were often adorned with animal and human figures

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