Displaying items by tag: greek and roman art

A new exhibition at the Cloisters in Manhattan, "Treasures and Talismans: Rings From the Griffin Collection," put together by C. Griffith Mann, curator of the Department of Medieval Art and the Cloisters, explores the subtle meanings behind beloved pieces of jewelry.

A number of ancient and medieval rings, on long-term loan to the museum, are shown in a wider historical and cultural context in the exhibition. Displayed alongside the jewels is a curated selection of paintings and sculptures borrowed from the museum's Greek and Roman Art, European Paintings, and Robert Lehman Collection.

An important, elaborately carved Roman urn of the first-early second century A.D.—one of the finest porphyry vessels to have survived from classical antiquity—has been acquired by The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

The acquisition was made possible in part thanks to a challenge grant from Metropolitan Museum Trustee Mary Jaharis.

Thomas P. Campbell, Director and CEO of the Museum, stated: “This rare and beautiful vase is a superb example of classical craftsmanship at its best. The public will now have the extraordinary opportunity to see it within the context of other Hellenistic and Roman works in various media, and especially other sculptures made of porphyry, in the collection of the Museum’s Department of Greek and Roman Art, one of the major repositories of classical art in North America.”