Limestone figure of a woman

Limestone figure of a woman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The figure is elaborately dressed in a chiton (long undergarment), a himation (overgarment), sandals, a diadem, necklaces, earrings, and spiral bracelets with snake terminals. With her left hand she holds both her drapery and the handle of a mirror. She stands on a ledge that abutted on something else in back and that is supported by figures, of which two heads remain. This work figured prominently during the 1880s, which controversy raged over the interventions to which Cesnola had subjected his objects. The piece was clearly once part of a larger whole, and the illogical gesture of holding her garment and a mirror simultaneously indicates that there was also modern recutting.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone figure of a womanLimestone figure of a womanLimestone figure of a womanLimestone figure of a womanLimestone figure of a woman

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.