Greco-Roman Panorama

By: Bobbie Leigh

May 2007

NEW YORK—On April 20, after 15 years of intense work, the Metropolitan Museum of Art

AT A GLANCE Benefactors: Leon Levy and Shelby White Court; Bill Blass and Frank A. Cosgrove Jr. Cost: Total budget for the Greek and Roman Galleries project is $220 million (this includes other projects in the same wing, such as the Uris Center and the Islamic Galleries). Visit www.metmuseum.org or call 212.535.7710.

unveiled what it calls a “museum-within-the-museum” in the complete redesign and reinstallation of its Greek and Roman galleries. The architectural centerpiece is a monumental, peristyle court with a soaring two-story atrium and glass roof. Nearly all of the Met’s classical antiquities—17,000 objects, including some 6,000 works previously in storage—are now on view and are presented for the first time in a logical progression. Tours start with the earliest art from Greece in the Neolithic period (6,000–3,200 B.C), proceed through the Early Cycladic and Minoan periods, the Mycenaean Bronze Age and the classical art of Greece and Rome (marble statue of a youthful Hercules, below, A.D. 69–98, in the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court), ending with the spread of Christianity in the fourth century. Each gallery is organized according to several themes, including religion, mythology, funerary customs, athletics, magic and medicine.

One standout is the newly restored sixth-century bronze Etruscan parade chariot, inlaid with elephant and hippopotamus ivory and richly decorated with scenes from Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. Only about a dozen exist, according to Carlos Picón, curator-in-charge of the Department of Greek and Roman Art. “This one is the best,” he says. [Note: Its ownership is currently being questioned.]

A series of frescoes from the lavish villas that Roman aristocrats built around the Bay of Naples give visitors a taste of the 40 B.C. equivalent of the French Riviera. On the mezzanine level, the Met has created a user-friendly study center with computer touch-screens, giving visitors and scholars alike the means to obtain more detailed information.

Met director Philippe de Montebello says the new Greek and Roman Galleries make use of “new technologies and encourage our visitors to look at ancient art in a new way.”