Terracotta protome of a goddess

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This large, beautiful protome consists of a veiled head and unarticulated expanse of neck and throat. The face is modeled in late Archaic style with sharply cut curls, narrow eyes, and closed lips raised at the corners in a smile. It is not possible to know which goddess is represented. Such masks were dedicated at sanctuaries and also placed in tombs. They have holes at the top to permit them to be hung up.

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