Greek & Roman Era 200 BC-AD600

Terracotta kernos

2250 BCE

Although the kernos was used in widely disparate regions during the prehistoric period, particularly impressive examples have come to light in the Cyclades, and this is one of the grandest preserved. The receptacles probably contained foodstuffs of various kinds or perhaps of flowers.

Terracotta alabastron (perfume vase) in the form of a woman holding a dove

650 BCE

Small figural vases found great favor in the East Greek world, but the number and location of the centers of production remain to be identified. The island of Rhodes seems to have been important. The iconography of figural vases has its own traditions. It also has points of contact with that of other media, notably stone sculpture.

Limestone head of a bearded man

600 BCE

The head belonged to a figure of over lifesize proportions. The conical cap, identifying him as an individual of high rank, appears at the end of the eighth century B.C. in the Levant and had reached Cyprus by the mid-seventh century B.C. It is characterized by a protuberance at the top and flaps at the sides that could be let down or fastened up by the ties ending in tassels.

Limestone Herakles

525 BCE

The statue was considerably reworked by Cesnola's "restorers" so that numerous features of the original are no longer clear. The proper left arm and the legs were certainly reattached; the original position of the right arm has also been obscured. Herakles wears a tunic, belt, modified kilt, and lionskin. In his left hand he held a bow, half of which appears against his body.

Terracotta funerary plaque

515 BCE

In the latter sixth century B.C., the elaborate series of funerary plaques set into the walls of rectangular tombs were replaced by single plaques with holes for attachment. The chariot race, a recurring theme in Attic funerary art, may evoke the funeral games held in honor of legendary heroes, such as those in book 23 of the Iliad, when Achilles honored his deceased friend Patroklos.

Marble metope

500 BCE

Reared on the myth of the Trojan war and experiencing the reality of wars with Persia and between Greek cities, classical artists found new ways to show conflict. This human fighting a centaur, carved for the Parthenon in Athens, is astonishingly real in its detail and dynamic energy.

Parthenon

432 BCE

The Parthenon is a resplendent marble temple built during the pinnacle of the Greek Empire. Devoted to the Greek goddess Athena, the Parthenon sits high over a multifactorial of temples known as the Acropolis of Athens. It was the largest and most extravagant temple the Greeks had ever saw.

Marble stele (grave marker) of a woman

400 BCE

This noble image of a woman brings to mind the philosopher Aristotle's description of commonly held beliefs about the dead: "In addition to believing that those who have ended this life are blessed and happy, we also think that to say anything false or slanderous against them is impious, from our feeling that it is directed against those who have already become our betters and superiors"

Apollo Belvedere

325 BCE

The work had originated from a Roman copy bronze statue created between 330 and 320 B.C. by the Greek sculptor Leochares. It was rediscovered in central Italy in the late 15th century during the Italian Renaissance and was placed on semi-public display in the Vatican Palace in 1511, where it remains. It is now in the Cortile del Belvedere of the Pio-Clementine Museum of the Vatican Museums complex.

Bronze statuette

300 BCE

As Alexander the Great is represented with a similar elephant skin on coins minted by Ptolemy I of Egypt, this statuette may represent Alexander as ruler of Egypt. This figure has also been identified as Demetrios I of Bactria, who is represented on coins wearing the scalp of an elephant in recognition of his conquests in India.

Marble column from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis

300 BCE

The section of a fluted Ionic column in the center of this room stood over fifty-eight feet high in its original location at the Temple of Artemis. The delicate foliate carving on the capital is unique among extant capitals from the temple, and the torus (foliated base), with its vegetal scale-like pattern, is also exceptionally elaborate. This capital is slightly smaller than others found at the site, indicating that it does not belong to the outer colonnade.

Bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer

250 BCE

lusively through the interaction of the body with several layers of dress. Over an undergarment that falls in deep folds and trails heavily, the figure wears a lightweight mantle, drawn tautly over her head and body by the pressure applied to it by her right arm, left hand, and right leg. Its substance is conveyed by the alternation of the tubular folds pushing through from below and the freely curling softness of the fringe.

Detail of Mosaic Alexander the Great at the Battle of Issus, Pompeii

110 BCE

Artistt unkown

Lebes

25 BCE

Unknown artist/maker...From the front of this lebes or cauldron emerges a half-length figure of a drunken satyr, one of the companions of Dionysos, the god of wine. The young satyr, wearing a wreath and holding a drinking cup, snaps his fingers, throws his head back, and grins in Dionysiac ecstasy.

Marble statue of Eirene (the personification of peace)

27

Eirene, the daughter of Zeus and Themis, was one of the three Horai (Seasons), maidens closely associated with the fertility of the earth and the nurturing of children.

Colosseum

75

An elliptical amphitheatre made of the 4 orders, in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy. It is the largest ancient amphitheatre ever built.

Marble Statue Group of the Three Graces

200

These young girls, linked in a dance-like pose, represent The Three Graces: Aglaia (Beauty), Euphrosyne (Mirth), and Thalia (Abundance). They bestow what is most pleasurable and beneficent in nature and society: fertility and growth, beauty in the arts, harmonious reciprocity between men. They enjoyed venerable cults in Greece.

Marble portrait of the emperor Caracalla

214

Caracalla took the official name of M. Aurelius Antoninus Pius as part of the Severan dynasty’s attempt to appear as the legitimate and worthy successors of the secondcentury Antonine emperors. Despite this, he abandoned the luxuriant hair and beard of his predecessors for a military style characterized by closely cropped curls and a stubble beard. An ancient source records that on his deathbed, his father Septimius Severus advised Caracalla to “enrich the soldiers and despise everyone else.”

Marble grave stele with a family group

360

There are no inscriptions that might identify the deceased. Both the seated man and the veiled woman behind him stare straight ahead, as if the young woman who gazes down at them were invisible.

Marble head of a goddess

400

The head was made with a convex tenon that could be set into a specially prepared cavity in the statue. The juncture was concealed by a line of drapery. This finely carved head of a young woman must represent a goddess because of its colossal size.