Marble bust of a man

Marble bust of a man

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Although the surface of this piece has been strongly cleaned and even recut in places, evidence of a heavy dark incrustation, formed during centuries of burial, is still visible, especially at the back. The expanse of chest and the full, fleshy appearance of the face and neck are characteristics suggesting that the work was carved in the mid-first century A.D., either as a copy of a portrait created in the Republican period or as a new work cast in that realistic style.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Marble bust of a manMarble bust of a manMarble bust of a manMarble bust of a manMarble bust of a man

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.