Nenfro tomb-slab fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is the lower-left corner of a much larger stone slab that probably originally depicted three vertical rows of square panels, each with an animal or figure, separated by plain stepped patterns. The entire slab, which measured about three feet by seven feet, may once have formed part of an enclosure for a tomb. A few vestiges of red color show that the stag on this fragment was once painted. A number of related examples come from Tarquinia, a city famous for its subterranean frescoed tombs.

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