Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Bust of an African Child
Not on view
Bronze figures of Black Africans were used throughout the Roman Empire and attest to the Roman world’s diversity. This bust of an African child is in the form of a perfume or incense holder, called a balsamarium. These containers usually have two loops and a lid, and generally were made through a lost-wax process, by pouring molten metal into a mold with a wax-and-clay core. Such vessels are distinctive among ancient anthropomorphic metalwork for how they treat otherness.
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