Sculpture

Sculpture, the emblematic art of Graeco-Roman civilisation, was omnipresent in the day-to-day environment of the Ancients. Roman artists employed stone and metal, particularly bronze, which when new shone like gold. Many masterpieces, however, were melted down for their metal, or burned in limekilns in the case of marble and limestone.

Many of the Nyon sculptures are a manifestation of the close link between the colony and the metropolis and reveal a level of artistic quality rarely equalled in the Roman provinces; a number of marble pieces intended for private gardens or public places were a product of the best Italian workshops. In addition to these imports the region produced its own limestone sculptures, mainly during the first two centuries AD.