The Greek and Roman Galleries

Schedule
Ongoing	Mon-Thu, Sun, 10am-5:30pm; Fri-Sat, 10am-9pm

Profile

The Levy court remains faithful in �spirit to the original, classically inspired McKim, Mead & White design. Its atrium rises two stories under a glass skylight; about twenty Roman sculptures dating from the first century B.C. to the second century A.D. stand on a new, handsomely patterned marble floor. The court has neither the fey, ironic quality of most postmodern architecture nor the staginess of the J. Paul Getty Museum’s copycat Roman villa in Los Angeles. It’s simple. It’s stately. It evokes but does not imitate a Roman garden. (A fountain�modern, but with a classical accent�adds an ageless melody.) Nothing looks as it did before: The art seems to have emerged from a dull yellow basement light, shaking off museum dust. On the mezzanine level is the Met’s collection of Etruscan art�along with a state-of-the-art study gallery containing secondary objects�whose showpiece is a chariot from the sixth century B.C. decorated with scenes from the life of Achilles. The chariot is both a scholar’s delight and a boy’s dream. — Mark Stevens

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New York Magazine Reviews

• Mark Stevens's Full Review (4/16/07)