Limestone figure wearing a mask

Limestone figure wearing a mask

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The figure wears a mask in the form of a bull's head and neck; the lower edge rests on the shoulders and chest. He seems to be stabilizing its lower end. One is reminded of Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Shakespeare's comic interpretation of an age-old tradition rooted in serious, ritual performances.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.