Pair of Eyes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2007

Pair of eyes
Bronze, marble, frit, quartz, and obsidian
Probably Greek, 5th century BC or later

Accession # 1991.11.3a, b

Greek and Roman statues were designed to give a colorful lifelike impression. Marble and wood sculptures were brightly painted, and bronze sculptures were originally a pale, fleshlike brown. Lips and nipples were often inlaid with copper, and teeth with silver. Eyes were usually made separately and set into prepared sockets. This pair, designed for an over life-sized statue, gives a sense of the potent immediacy that ancient sculpture could convey.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.