This sculpture originally crowned the tall grave marker on view in this gallery. A plaster copy has been set on the monument itself and a new color reconstruction is displayed nearby. The sphinx retains abundant traces of yellow, red, black, and blue pigment, and the front face of the capital once had a painted design of palmettes and volutes (spiral scrolls).
A mythical creature with a lion’s body, the wings and breast of a bird, and a human head, the sphinx appears in various forms of art throughout the eastern Mediterranean region from the Bronze Age onward. The Greeks pictured it as a winged female and often placed its image on grave monuments as guardian of the dead. This example was carved separately from the rest; 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 designed like a lyre.
#834. Marble Capital and Finial in the Form of a Sphinx
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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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