Art of the Classical World in the Met

Art of the Classical World
in the Metropolitan Museum of Art:
Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome





The New York Metropolitan Museum of Art – established in 1870 and colloquially known as the Met – has a substantial collection of items from the classical world: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, and Rome.

Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was published in 2007 in order to celebrate the successful completion of a 15-year long project of reorganising the museum’s Greek and Roman collection.

This beautiful book presents 476 ancient items, which are on display in the museum. It is produced by John P. O’Neill (editor in chief), Barbara Cavaliere (editor), and Bruce Campbell (designer). The text is written by the following six scholars: Carlos A. Picon, Joan R. Martens, Elizabeth J. Milleker, Christopher S. Lightfoot, Sean Hemingway, and Richard De Puma.

The book is large and long (more than 500 pages). There is a hardcover version and a paperback version.

Art of the Classical World is a catalogue, which provides a brief description and a photo of each item. In several cases there is more than one photo of a particular item. In other words, there are more than 500 illustrations in this book, and most of them get a full page. All illustrations are in colour, except a few old photos taken many years ago and some floor plans, which are in black-and-white.

The book opens with a foreword by Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Met 1977-2008; a brief history of the department of Greek and Roman art; and a floor plan of the Greek and Roman art galleries.

At the end of the book we find a chart with the major Greek, Etruscan, and Roman divinities; a concordance; and a general index.

The main part of the book is divided into seven chapters:

# 1 “Art of the Neolithic and Aegean Bronze Age: ca. 6000- ca. 1050 BC” (18 pages)

# 2 “Art of Geometric and Archaic Greece: ca. 1050-480 BC” (48 pages)

# 3 “Art of Classical Greece: ca. 480-323 BC” (84 pages)

# 4 “Art of the Hellenistic Age: ca. 323-31 BC” (46 pages)

# 5 “The Art of Cyprus: ca. 3900 BC-AD 100” (42 pages)

# 6 “Art of Etruria: ca. 900-100 BC” (52 pages)

# 7 “Art of the Roman Empire: ca. 31 BC-AD 330” (91 pages)

For reasons of space I can only mention a few items in this review.

From chapter 1: a statue of a seated harp player; made of marble; and dated to ca. 2800- ca.2700 BC; # 4.

From chapter 2: a funerary plaque with prothesis (laying out the dead) (in the upper register) and a chariot race (in the lower register); dated to 520-510 BC; # 69.

From chapter 3: a box mirror with a portrait of Pan; dated to the fourth century BC; # 198.

From chapter 4: a bust of the famous Greek historian Herodotos or Herodotus; a Roman copy made in the second century AD of a Greek original made in the fourth century BC; # 256.

From chapter 5: the Amathus sarcophagus; dated to the fifth century BC. Four pictures show all four sides of the object. In the notes there are four additional pictures where the ancient colours are restored; # 294.

From chapter 6: a neck amphora (a jar) with couples banqueting (in the upper register) and a man herding bulls (in the lower register); dated to ca. 540 BC; # 330.

From chapter 7 (the longest chapter in the book) the following items:

* A portrait of Caligula, emperor 37-41; # 413

* A portrait of Antoninus Pius, emperor 138-161; # 447

* A portrait of Caracalla, emperor 211-217; # 454
* A portrait of Constantine, emperor 306-337; # 473

* A couch and a footstool with bone carvings and glass inlays; dated to the 1^st or the 2^nd century AD; four pictures give the total view and three details; # 446

* A sarcophagus decorated with a relief which shows the triumph of Dionysus and the four seasons; dated to AD 260-279; four pictures give the total view and three details; # 470

* Eleven pages of this chapter show frescoes from the Villa of P. Fannius Synistor at Boscoreale; # 375-380. In 2010 the museum published a short but excellent book about this place: Roman Frescoes from Boscoreale. In addition, eight pages show frescoes from the Villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase; # 399-403.

This book is a love of labour. It is easy to see that the people behind it paid great attention to every aspect and every detail of this product. The result is a wonderful catalogue of the collections in the Met and at the same time a useful handbook of classical art.

PS # 1. The famous calyx-krater by Euphronios, which was acquired in 1972, is mentioned briefly on page 19. This item is described as a “celebrated” purchase, even though it would be more appropriate to talk about a “controversial” purchase, since it was probably the result of an illegal excavation in Etruria.  It was returned to Italy in 2008. For more information about this case see the prologue and epilogue of The Medici Conspiracy by Peter Watson and Cecilia Todeschini (2006, 2007).

PS # 2. For general information about the history of the Met, see Michael Gross, Rogues’ Gallery (hardcover 2009, paperback 2010).

PS # 3. For information about the Cesnola collection of ancient art from Cyprus (presented in chapter 5), see Elizabeth McFadden, The Glitter and the Gold (1971).

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John P. O'Neill (editor in chief),

Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art:

Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome,

Yale University Press, 2007, 508pages

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