I visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Saturday, November 30, 2002. When I entered the galleries, used a floor map to locate the rooms of the Belfer Court. This map showed me that all of the galleries I needed to complete the project were adjacent to each other, so I did not need to look at the map any longer. It was simple to figure out what time period the artifacts were from, since the information cards indicated it. The sculptures were also easy to find since they were noticeable due to their large sizes. The museum made the project a great learning experience.

The rooms of the Belfer Court featured Greek and Roman art from the earliest times to the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Pottery had always been a great indicator of the values and traditions of the Greek civilizations. I located an example of pottery known as the Terracotta column-krater (41.162.79). It was from the Early Corinthian period in ca. 625 - 600 B.C. This was a bowl used for mixing wine and water. It was about one and a half feet in height and about two feet in diameter. This bowl was most likely used at parties and festivals. It was very popular at that time to paint vases, and this vase

The trip to the museum was a semi-hands-on experience in history of early Western civilizations. I examined many ancient works of art as well as object of everyday use. The pottery, weapons, and geometric figures from the seventh and sixth centuries served as an example of tools and skills of the people of that time period. The female sculptures of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. helped show the different roles of women in society. Finally, the bedroom from the Villa at Boscoreale gave examples of standards of living of the prosperous. This trip to the museum was an excellent way to bring course material to life.

My final task in the Metropolitan Museum of Art was to visit a reconstructed Cubiculum (Bedroom) from the Villa of F. Fannius Synistor. It was located in the Villa at Boscoreale. It came from the late republican period in the Roman Empire in ca. 40-30 B.C. This room was a great source of information about the lifestyles of wealthy elite in the Roman Empire. In the later part of the fourth century B.C., the Romans began expanding their territory by conquest and acquiring large amounts of booty. The wealthy Romans were decorating their small private towns with all these gifts and valuable materials taken from other lands. The sidewalls of the bedroom had paintings of a style and technique used on stage sets in from of which Greek plays were performed during the Hellenistic time period. They were called frescoes and since they were painted inside a bedroom, it shows that the bedroom belonged a member of the elite. The paintings even showed a cult statue, which indicated that the tenant was a cult believer. The inside of the room and the frescoes give an impression of being outdoors in the streets of the Villa at Boscoreale. The paintings were geometrically consistent and drawn almost or fully to scale. It made it look multi-dimensional the way there were buildings and narrow alleyways painted on the walls.

Inside the bedroom, there was a couch and a footstool made of wood with bone carvings and a glass inlay. It came from the Villa of Livia, and belonged to the wife of the Emperor Augustus, at Prima Porta, near Rome. It also existed in the first half of the first century A.D. The couch was reconstructed from many different parts and pieces. The legs have bone plaques carved in them; they showed pictures of animals, an eagle, and some huntsmen. On the frame of the couch, were two lions' heads. There were also parts made with patterned glass that was very popular in Rome.

The rooms adjacent to the Belfer court were those containing sculptures from the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. One very popular scu

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