How do I cite an ancient work of art?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.

How you cite an ancient work of art depends on where you viewed it.

If you viewed it at a museum, follow our guidelines for citing artwork at a museum. If you viewed it online, follow our guidelines in the same post for citing artwork found online. Style the name of the artwork roman without quotation marks, following the convention for styling names of ancient works of art.

As always, key your in-text citation to the first element of the works-cited-list entry, which will likely be the name of the artwork, since the creators of ancient works of art are usually unknown.