ANCIENT ROMAN STATUARY: a catalogue of the 27 galleries in 'classical' statuary at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York -- from GALLERY No. 150 to GALLERY No. 176.

Speranza

There are 27 Galleries within The Department of Greek and Roman ("Classic") Art. To wit:

The Gallery No. 150 is at the center of The Robert and Renée Belfer Court for Early Greek Art provides the introduction to all the galleries of ancient Greek and Roman art and includes a map of the ancient world. In it are displayed prehistoric and early Greek art as well as, from time to time, rotating major artworks on loan of varying periods. It contains six items.

The Gallery No. 151 is located on the west side of The Robert and Renée Belfer Court. It represents several regions—the Cycladic Islands, Crete, and the parts of the Greek mainland centred around Mycenae—where major works of art were first produced. The respective cultures, known as Cycladic, Minoan, and Mycenaean, flourished during the prehistoric period known as the Bronze Age, between about 3200 and 1050 B.C. Displayed nearby are works of the subsequent Geometric period of about 1050–700 B.C., when the first Greek city-states and sanctuaries were established. It contains 108 items.

The Gallery No. 152 is on the east side of The Robert and Renée Belfer Court, and it's devoted to the Archaic period of about 700 to 480 B.C. The emphasis is on works that display the colorful, complex multiplicity that characterized the Greek world for more than two centuries. Featured are the arts of the Greek colonies in western Asia Minor, Southern Italy, Sicily, Crete, and various areas of mainland Greece that flourished at this time: Corinth, Lakonia, Boeotia, Euboea, and Attica. It contains 74 items.

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The Gallery No. 153, in the grand, barrel-vaulted space, displays large-scale sculpture and other monumental works of the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries B.C. It is VERY IMPORTANT. Works of the sixth century include examples from the Museum's distinguished collection of Panathenaic amphorae amid other works related to ancient Greek athletics. In the center of the gallery are displayed large-scale marble copies—made during the Roman period—of bronze statues that were created in Greece during the fifth and fourth centuries but were lost or melted down over time. Original marble statues of the fourth century B.C. are shown by the crowning sculptures of tall Athenian grave monuments. It contains 41 items, including the Fallen Warrior.

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The Gallery No. 154 is unique in the Western Hemisphere in its display of the three major types of Greek freestanding marble sculpture of the sixth century B.C.: the kouros and kore, which served as funerary monuments or dedications, and the pillar-like grave stele. This is also the period when Athens supplanted Corinth as the center of pottery production, exemplified by several works attributed to the Amasis Painter, one of the most skillful and innovative of the black-figure artists. It contains 47 items.


The Gallery No. 155 focuses on the art of Athens, particularly on painted vases in the black-figure technique, which flourished from about 600 to 530 B.C. The vases were all made for actual use and they are decorated with mythological scenes as well as reflections of Athenian life. Contemporary works in marble, bronze, and silver present many of the same themes as on the pottery. It contains 93 items.

The Gallery No. 156 presents a fine collection of marble grave markers from Athens dating from the mid-fifth century B.C. through the early fourth century B.C. In the fifth century B.C., the Greeks reached levels of excellence in art, literature, and philosophical thought that have served as models and formed the foundation for much of Western European culture. Despite wars—first against the Persians and then against Sparta, its major Greek rival—Athens became the political, economic, and cultural leader of Greece, producing works of art and literature of the highest quality. It contains 83 items.

The Gallery No.  157 provides examples of Athenian vase painting between about 530 and 400 B.C., when the flexibility of the newly developed red-figure technique permitted artists to draw freely over the convex and concave surfaces of vases. A high proportion of the vases were made for containing, pouring, and drinking wine. On view also are significant examples of painted marble and terracotta sculpture, as well as coins and gems. It contains 106 items.


The Gallery No. 158 is of mostly of works of art from funerary monuments, including large-scale marble vases that were used as grave markers. In addition, terracotta statuettes of fashionable women or girls, prized today for their naturalness, vitality, and charm, are displayed here. The jewelry in this gallery presents the wealth of the Classical Greek world on the eve of the Hellenistic period that flourished after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. It contains 103 items.


The Gallery No. 159 contains works of art which reflect the artistic accomplishments of Athens at its height, as well as the influence that the Parthenon (built between 447 and 432 B.C.) had on objects in other media. Prominent also are funerary vases covered with a white slip and decorated in a range of colors not previously used in Greek ceramics. It contains 77 items.


The Gallery No. 160 features Hellenistic portraits of marble and bronze, monumental painted terracotta vases from Southern Italy, and architectural fragments from the Temple of Artemis at Sardis, including the massive marble Ionic column and elements of the doorway, porch, and roof.
Sardis was the ancient capital of Lydia, in southwestern Turkey, and its temple to Artemis ranks among the seven largest of all Greek temples. It contains 23 items.

The Gallery No. 161 contains work by Greek emigrants who founded colonies in Southern Italy and Sicily as early as the mid-eighth century B.C. They flourished in their own right and profoundly influenced the artistic production of the indigenous populations. This interplay is particularly evident in the South Italian vases of the fourth century B.C., produced especially for funerary use. Furthermore, it appears in the predilection for subjects derived from Greek drama. Owing to a dearth of fine marble, terracotta was also a primary medium for sculpture. It contains 127 items.

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The Gallery No. 162 is THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE. The 'cortile romano', so-called. The Court evokes the grandeur that was Rome and provides a suitable setting for the sculptures that were created under Roman patronage, inspired by models from both Classical Greece and the Hellenistic kingdoms. The arts of South Italy and Ptolemaic Egypt provide the opulent background for the development of Roman taste and luxury. Funerary monuments and grave gifts give a poignant insight into personal lives that draw a different picture of Rome as a place of monumental architecture, sumptuously decorated with marble and decked out with an array of statuary. The statues, in bronze and marble, represented gods, personifications, historical figures, and real people. Roman copies and adaptations of earlier lost Greek works survived to stimulate the classical revival that arose throughout Europe in the eighteenth century. It contains 168 items.

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The Gallery No. 163 is designed as an intimate space that is conducive to the appreciation of exquisite small-scale works of refined beauty, and houses some of the most important treasures of Hellenistic art in the Museum's collection. It features gold, silver, and glass vessels from different regions of the Hellenistic world, including Magna Graecia, Egypt, the Ionian coast of Anatolia, and Parthia. Fine necklaces, diadems, finger rings, earrings, and gold armbands provide a glimpse of the mastery of the goldsmiths' art for articles of personal adornment during the third through first centuries B.C. It contains 58 items.

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The Gallery No. 164 features a variety of aspects of Hellenistic art of the third through first centuries B.C. and their transmission to the Roman world. Hellenistic artists drew from the serene Classical ideal but also moved in new directions, reflecting the many contacts with various cultures after the conquests of Alexander the Great. Wall paintings from a Roman villa at Boscoreale—some of which echo lost Hellenistic Macedonian royal paintings—and exquisite bronze sculptures provide an impression of the refined Classical environment that was cultivated, especially in private homes. It contains 76 items.

The Gallery No. 165 is an accurate reconstruction of a bedroom from the Roman villa at Boscoreale (ca. 50–40 B.C.) that was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius on August 24, A.D. 79. The walls are decorated with highly ornate and colorful frescoes of the so-called Second Style, comprising urban landscapes with towering architectural vistas on the side walls and rocky outdoor scenes populated by various songbirds on the rear wall. Known as the villa of P. Fannius Synistor, the building was excavated in 1900. It contains 1 item.

The Gallery No. 166 contains many exquisite examples of Roman imperial art. The reign of the first emperor Augustus (r. 27 B.C.–A.D. 14) saw the development of a new form of state art, the imperial portrait, created in both lifesize statuary and small-scale works such as gems and coins. Imperial patronage of the arts is evident in monumental architecture and sculpture as well as in other media such as wall paintings, silverware, and glass. Much of the inspiration for the Augustan style came from the Greek East, as did many of the architects, sculptors, and artists themselves. It contains 112 items.


The Gallery No. 167 is a reconstruction of a room from the villa of Agrippa Postumus at Boscotrecase which incorporates surviving panels from the original walls. They must have been painted by artists working for the imperial household during renovations after 11 B.C.
Compared to the paintings found at Boscoreale (see Gallery 165), these panels reflect a new and different style, known as Third Style, with a taste for insubstantial, delicate forms set against a flat, monochrome surface and including Egyptianizing motifs and medallions with portraits of members of the imperial family. It contains 8 items.

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The Gallery No. 168 is VERY IMPORTANT. It displays fine examples of material culture from the second century A.D., when the Roman empire was at the height of its power and prosperity and when people in Rome, throughout Italy, and in many of the provinces enjoyed a standard of living and a way of life that were unequaled both in antiquity and in more recent times. Objects associated with activities that either ensured or benefited from imperial protection (the Roman army, the state religion, the games, and the baths) are also on view. It contains 155 items.

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The Gallery No. 169 IS VERY IMPORTANT. It contains works that demonstrate changes in social and artistic trends that emerged during the later imperial period. One of these was the adoption of burial (internment) in place of cremation, prompting the creation of an empire-wide industry making large and imposing marble sarcophagi. Oriental cults spread across the Roman world and exerted a growing influence on people's lives in this period of political and economic uncertainty. Also on view is a display of gold, silver, and bronze coins that were minted primarily to supply money for state expenditure and to facilitate the collection of taxes. It contains 119 items.

The Gallery No. 170 contains works from the Etruscan heartland. This land was delimited by the River Arno to the north and the Tiber to the south and east. Its culture developed from an earlier one, called Villanovan, and was enriched by a variety of influences, notably Phoenician, Greek, and Roman. By the early third century B.C., Rome effectively controlled most of the Etruscan territory.
The Etruscans were consummate metalworkers, as indicated by their jewelry and bronzes, most notably the ceremonial chariot from Monteleone. Another medium in which they excelled was carved amber. Their accomplished craftsmanship and cultural complexity is well illustrated in this gallery within the Leon Levy and Shelby White Galleries. It contains 509 items.

The Gallery No. 171, which is very long, within the Leon Levy and Shelby White Galleries, features a large display with sixty cases of study material, comprising some four thousand works in all media and covering the entire cultural and chronological span of the department's collection, from the art of prehistoric Greece through late Roman art. Among the noteworthy works in this area are a collection of geometric Greek vases given to the Metropolitan in 1930 by the Greek government and a Roman transport amphora given by the oceanographer Jacques Cousteau. Computer screens located throughout the study collection allow visitors to access electronic labels for the objects. It contains 3,430 items.

The Gallery No. 172 features a rotating display of special exhibitions organized by the curators of the Department of Greek and Roman Art. It contains 3 items.

The Gallery No. 173 houses a collection of ancient art from Cyprus that was acquired by the Museum in 1874, having been assembled on the island by General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, who was American consul there and later became the Met's first director. Because of the sites that he explored, he did not find the very earliest levels of material culture, which are now dated back to 10,000 B.C. This gallery focuses on objects of the Bronze Age (ca. 2500–1050 B.C.). Though not surely from Cyprus, the bronze ingot represents the island's single most significant resource. It contains 107 items.

The Gallery No. 174 has the greatest strength of the Museum's Cypriot collection, which lies in stone sculpture of the sixth through third century B.C., examples of which are on view in this gallery. Made of the soft local limestone, the works preserve considerable polychromy. The most significant object in terms of scale, quality, and importance is the sarcophagus from the site of Amathus. Also well represented here are metal vases, particularly of silver. The works on display reflect the successive influence of Assyrian, Egyptian, Persian, and Greek domination. It contains 132 items.

The Gallery No. 175 is about Cyprus. Although Cyprus was under Persian rule from about 525 B.C. until it was liberated by Alexander the Great in 333 B.C., the Cypriot sculpture on view in the A.G. Leventis Foundation Gallery demonstrates Greek influence, though in a form modified by the variety of peoples that occupied the island. For this period especially, sculpture represents the great strength of the Museum's holdings. The sarcophagus from Golgoi is the most important work. The lively scenes decorating it would have been enhanced with added color, traces of which remain on many of the other pieces in the Cypriot galleries. It contains 26 items.

The Gallery No. 176 features works of Cypriot art from the periods of Hellenistic and Roman rule. Artistic production followed the prevailing styles of the Hellenistic world, although regional traditions continued—as represented, for example, by the sculptures of "temple boys." The art of Roman Cyprus is particularly well illustrated by glass and jewelry as well as sculpture. It contains 86 items.