The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece and Rome

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Greece and Rome presents the Metropolitan Museums collections of classical art, which range from early Cycladic pieces — dating from about 2700 B.C. — to works created in Rome at the time of the conversion to Christianity of the emperor Constantine in A.D. 312. Among the important examples of Greek art presented in this volume are the Cycladic Harp Player, made in about 2700 B.C. Cypriot sarcophagi from the fifth century B.C. an Attic kouros from the sixth century B.C. Roman art is represented by examples of late republican wall painting, silver, and glass, and by portrait busts or statues of her emperors, their consort and relatives, as well as of anonymous citizens—giving us a broad picture of the styles and attitudes favored during Romes long history. "This volume presents the Metropolitan Museum's collections of classical art, which range from early Cycladic pieces- dating from about 2700 B.C.- to works created in Rome at the time of the conversion to Christianity of the emperor Constantine in A.D. 312. To be sure, this picture of the classical world is only a partial one. Greek painting, for example, has been largely lost to histor, and certainly many of the best Greek and Roman works reside in other museums, or, in the case of architecture, still stand throughout the Mediterranean world. Yet the collections of the Metropolitan do contain many of the finest examples of Cycladic, Cypriot, Attic, East Greek, archaic, geometric, and classical Greek art as well as of the art created by the Etruscans and in republican and imperial Rome."--Page 2 of cover This twelve-volume series for the general reader reproduces works of art representing the resources of all eighteen curatorial departments of the Museum.