This capital and sphinx originally crowned the tall grave marker of a youth and a little girl on view in this gallery. A plaster copy has been set on the monument itself.
The sphinx, a mythological creature with a lion's body and a human head, was known in various forms throughout the eastern Mediterranean region from the Bronze Age onward. The Greeks represented it as a winged female and often placed its image on grave monuments as guardian of the dead. This sphinx, which retains abundant traces of red, black, and blue pigment, was carved separately from the capital on which it stands. Its plinth was let into a socket at the top of the capital and secured by a metal dowel and a bed of molten lead. The capital is in the form of two double volutes (spiral scrolls) designed like a lyre. The front face of the capital also had a painted design of palmettes and volutes.
#834. Marble Capital and Finial in the Form of a Sphinx
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Backlit detail of the crown, showing its meander pattern
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Enhanced ultraviolet-induced visible luminescence image of the capital, showing traces of original painted decoration
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Scanning electron microscope image (.03 mm wide) of a microscopic cross-section of the paint layer collected from the sphinx’s hair, showing red ocher pigment applied directly to the marble surface and covered by burial accretion
Artwork Details
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Title:Marble capital and finial in the form of a sphinx
Period:Archaic
Date:ca. 530 BCE
Culture:Greek, Attic
Medium:Marble, Parian
Dimensions:H. with akroterion 56 1/8 in. (142.6 cm)
Classification:Stone Sculpture
Credit Line:Munsey Fund, 1936, 1938
Object Number:11.185d, x
Said to have come from Kataphygi, Attica
Until 1936 and 1938, private collection, England; acquired in 1936 and 1938, purchased through Martin Birnbaum.
Reuterswärd, Patrik. 1980. Studien zur Polychromie der Plastik. p. 78, Stockholm: Bokförlaget Svenska.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 16, pp. 30–31, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bodel, John P. and Stephen Tracy. 1997. Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the USA : A Checklist. p. 184, Rome: American Academy in Rome.
Milleker, Elizabeth J. 2003. Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. pp. 95–96, pl. 6, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. pp. 22–23, fig. 9, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Estrin, Seth. 2023. "Archaic Sculpture and Archaisms of Gender:
Rethinking the “Brother and Sister Stele”." The Art Bulletin, 105(3): pp. 36, 41–45, figs. 4, 12–13.
Basso, Elena, Federico Caro, and De Abramitis. 2023. "Polychromy in Ancient Greek Sculpture: New Scientific
Research on an Attic Funerary Stele at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art." Applied Sciences, 15(5):
Hemingway, Seán and Sarah Lepinski. 2025. "Chroma : Ancient Sculpture in Color and Anceint Polychromy at The Met." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. pp. 14, 33, figs. 1, 2, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Abramitis, De. 2025. "Discovering Decoration on Greek and Roman Marble Sculpture at The Met." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. pp. 49–53, figs. 1a–c, 2a, b, 3, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Caro, Federico and Elena Basso. 2025. "In Search of Ancient Pigments : The contribution of scientific research to Chroma : Ancient Sculpture in Color." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. pp. 59–62, figs. 3, 5–6a, b, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Koch-Brinkmann, Ulrike, Vinzenz Brinkmann, and Heinrich Piening. 2025. "Colors of the Sphinx : The physical reconstruction as a indispensable part of the investigation process." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. pp. 66–81 , figs. 1–5, 7a, b, 10a–d, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Geffert, Scott and Jessica Ng. 2025. "3D Imaging the Sphinx : Challenges, solutions and opportunities." Chroma : Sculpture in Color from Antiquity to Today, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Symposia, Seán Hemingway, Sarah Lepinski, and Vinzenz Brinkmann, eds. pp. 83–89, figs. 2–3, 5a, 6, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
