EPHEMERA : RECENT MUSINGS ABOUT CLASSICAL ART AND RELEVANT TOPICS
Deep in the Peloponnesian wilderness, high on a mountainous crag at Bassai, is a wild and wonky temple. Iktinos, who had played a major role in the design of the Parthenon some decades before, gave himself free reign here, combining Doric and Ionic architectural traditions and introducing (perhaps) the first Corinthian capital. The construction took
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Women in Classical Athens had a notoriously sheltered life, likely rarely leaving the home unaccompanied. An important exception was the extensive (but not terribly well understood) calendar of all-female festivals. Our understanding of these festivals are problematic, hampered by the surviving evidence: literary and artistic descriptions made by men, who would have had little first-hand
Hard stone polished to a lustrous shine is irresistible (to me, at least, and probably also inquisitive magpies). In Cleveland’s Museum of Art, a relatively large banded agate has been painstakingly carved into a relatively tiny (only 6.5 cm tall), functional pouring vessel. It is also a wonderful example of Greek and Egyptian traditions blending
I am ocassionally guilty of focusing on splashy marble and bronze statues, as well as (of course) vases with a bit of bathroom humour. But today I want to focus on this terracotta sleeper at the Met While he is not flashy at first glance, a closer look reveals impressive craftsmanship and more importantly a
I have a special fondness for satyrs, those horny, irrepressible drunkards unbound by mortal conventions. But maenads, the female followers of Dionysos, also abound in Greek art and are no less fascinating… This cup is one of the great masterpieces attributed to the Brygos Painter (made in Athens, found in Vulci, now in Munich), with
All hail, Hera, the queen of the Olympian gods, long-suffering (and occasionally vengeful) wife of Zeus, revered throughout the Greek world. Found in Olympia by the German excavation team in the late 19th century at the Temple of Hera there, this is a colossal (52 cm tall – double life sized) early Archaic head, dating
This is special little bronze (H. 7.1 cm): a very early and spatially sophisticated representation of a seated man. It hails from the Geometric period in Greece (mid-8th century B.C.), likely from a Peloponnesian workshop, and has been with the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore since the 1920’s. Although at first glance it is simple
To me, this is perhaps the most poignant scene in all of Greek vase painting – and there are thousands of incredible representations to choose from. It is the interior of a large drinking cup, executed in the red-figure technique by one of the greats: the Brygos Painter (attributed) and now at the Getty. Lying
What happens when you transform the face of a pudgy young potentate into that of a dour old military leader? A peculiar portrait, indeed! The head is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art, acquired in the 1920’s when it was attached erroneously to a toga-draped body. The peculiarities alluded to are the weird tilt
The psychedelic arrangement of those whirling colored crescents might first attract the eye, but the miniature scenes above them really hold the gaze. It might just be the perfect vase, and so small it can fit comfortably in the palm of your hand. Aryballoi such as this one were specially designed for holding oil and
This perfect little ivory foot at the Met is only 14.3 centimetres long, and exquisitely detailed both anatomically and iconographically. It is carved in exacting detail, replete with cuticles, toe-nails, ankle-bones, and knuckle-creases and on the whole invitingly tactile as far as feet go. The Greek-style sandal too, shows extreme sensitivity – the delicate krepides
Hellenistic in origin and striking a chord with an appreciative Roman audience, this statue group has all the things! (and not one of them politically correct…) Shown is an amorous (to be polite) satyr grasping at the voluptuous body of a resisting hermaphrodite (in the classical world, the mythical offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite with
Ever heard the phrase ‘Rich as Croesus’? It’s a bit out of fashion these days but refers to the last king (Kroisos latinised to Croesus) of the Lydian Empire and the fabulous wealth that he splashed all over Panhellenic sanctuaries. A large part of that wealth came from the Pactolus river running through the capital
What exuberance! This pelike in Boston (attributed to master painter Euphronios or a young and equally innovative Euthymides) is a gem. One side shows two nude youths jumping to the accompaniment of an aulos player. They are in near perfect unison, bodies frontal, heads tuned towards the musician, impressively far off the ground, with legs
The colossal kouros of Samos is remarkable in many ways – it’s sheer size (nearly 5.3 meters tall), relatively recent date of discovery (body in 1980 and head in 1984), the benign ‘archaic smile’ on his lips, and the soft quality of his flesh – a counterpoint to the almost architecturally structured kouroi of mainland
Royal sibling rivalry? Why, yes please, just the 3rd century A.D. edition of ‘the heir and the spare’… This delectable painted roundel (tempera on a panel) now in Berlin shows the Severan Royal family in happier days around 200 A.D. Emperor Septimius Severus and Empress Julia Domna are shown in the background, and the two
Mimesis on my mind, and gravitating towards bronze today. If the artistic reproduction of reality was the goal, bronze was king, and it had been since atleast the Early Classical period. Life sized bronzes do not survive in great quantities (when they do they are spectacular), but literary evidence indicates that the most acclaimed of
This black-figure cup at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore shows combat between two warriors has a very special shape: it is a mastoid skyphos, taking its name from the Greek word ‘mastos’ (breast). It was a shape popular only for a few decades in the second half of the 6th century B.C. Almost impossibly
One doesn’t see ancient life-sized terracotta sculptures every day, and this is perhaps the most remarkable to have survived. This remarkable bust was found between Pozzuoli and Cumae in the 19th century and was likely produced locally during the mid-first century B.C. Art history survey courses understandably harp on about Roman ‘verism’ and the ‘warts
With all the beautiful bodies to ogle, it is easy to overlook the extraordinary representations of animals from Classical Athens (and beyond). It is absolutely clear that ancient Greeks had far more intimate appreciation of animals than most of us do today. I’m showing this old stalwart, the over life-sized head of a spirited horse
Captured in the interior of this large drinking cup is the very moment when Achilles and Penthesilea (the Amazon queen) meet on the battlefield at Troy. They fall in love, tragically, just as Achilles fatally stabs her. This representation is special on all sorts of levels, but primarily because of the way the painter has
Discovered in 1928, the silver hoard from Marengo (Piemonte) is spectacular and worth a trip to Torino. And this is its star: a silver bust of the emperor Lucius Verus, instantly recognisable by his luxuriant curls, simian hairline, slightly forked beard, and narrow jaw. The thin and brittle silver walls were a bit squashed, giving
The idea of the ‘thanatos kalos’, the ‘beautiful death’, was a crucial part of the Ancient Greek world view, and specifically referred to the death of a warrior on the battlefield at the absolute pinnacle of his vigor, strength and endurance (physical and mental). This type of death meant the corpse retained elements of this
The intermittent discoveries of spectacular ancient bronzes have a way of reminding us just how much we’re missing from antiquity and igniting the imagination… This head with assertively bushy beard, tousled hair and intense glare, was excavated by a Bulgarian team in 2004, and most likely represents Seuthes III. The Thracian king ruled the the
“Like lentils rolling in flour!” – how the excavator of the famous pebble mosaics at Pella described their dire state of conservation upon their discovery in the late 1950’s. A vivid image, and an indication of the challenging restoration and consolidation in store for them. Pella was the traditional capital of ancient Macedonia, and the
The early Greek colonists of Sicily were horse-mad and temple-crazy, and conspicuous consumption on took its most grandiose form on the numerous Doric temples they erected. Selinus (modern Selinunte) was the the western most of the Greek colonies, founded in the second half of the 7th century B.C., spread across two craggy hills over-looking the
I do love it when an artwork speaks in the first person! An inscription in Greek running up and down this statuette’s magnificent thighs, proclaims:“Mantiklos donated me as a tithe to the far shooter, the bearer of the Silver Bow. You, Phoibos (Apollo) give something pleasing in return.” Stylistically, the bronze is on the cusp
He’s gorgeous, he’s purple, and he is Alexander’s least favorite orator! But he’s my favorite: Demosthenes you ornery bastard! Roman culturally, and Greek by design, this enormous (1.9 cm) gem shows the glowering visage of Demosthenes. After strengthening his voice and polishing his diction by training with a mouthful of pebbles (have to try this),
Miniature, but delectable! This is a rare survival of chryselephantine (gold and ivory) sculpture from the Hellenistic world, and is a tantalizing glimpse into the level of luxury that was available to the elite. Here, a komos (the tipsy procession after the symposium) is shown. A young satyr leads the trio playing the aulos (a
Herakles/Hercules was special in the Greek and Roman worlds. He was as famous for his excessive vices as he was for his heroics, and he applied himself with equal dedication to both: a glutton, an incorrigible womanizer, and frequently a drunkard. The life of the party, even though he could have some serious explaining (and
‘Never been buried’ : perhaps the most romantic and captivating descriptor of any ancient artwork and never more than in the case of the so-called Vienna Cameo.The cameo is remarkable in every conceivable dimension, not the least of which is virtuoso technique in which it was carved. The large Indian onyx consists of at least
Used to render the divine flesh of cult statues in ancient Greece and Rome, there is a sort of otherworldly warmth to ivory that lands differently to carved stone. The survival of ivory sculpture is rare, and of life-sized statuary practically unheard of. This most miraculous survival now at the Palazzo Massimo in Rome preserves
You might not have heard of Juba II or Volubilis, but this over life-sized bronze portrait somehow sums up the man’s impossible life – a mix of early tragedy, power, and making things work in a tight spot. Juba was born as the prince of Numidia and was only a toddler when his father committed
You might have seen this extraordinary engraved agate before. It was found late in the University of Cincinnati’s 2015 excavation season at Pylos (deep in the Peloponnese) in an intact Mycenaean grave (ca. 1450 B.C.) and the discovery made the front page of the New York Times. And rightly so! The other 1500 or so objects
This marble portrait head (the big bust it’s perched on is post-antique, so I’ve ruthlessly cropped it) found near Otricoli and later entering the famed Torlonia collection is the very finest of its kind. Republican portraits of its ilk are usually described as ‘veristic’, and their popularity seems to have drawn on their ability to
Ever heard of Aphrodisias’ “Blue Horse”? If not, you’ve been missing out! It’s an insane sculpture (sculptural group, really) in every way, originally erected in the city’s Civil Basilica, where the lower course of the L-shaped base remains, inscribed “The people set up the Troilos, and the horse, and the Achilles” – terrifically helpful because
With a silver sheen to that hauntingly immobile face and empty slitted apertures for eyes, this helmet instantly projects an uncanny, otherworldly effect. And presumably that was exactly the point. Roman helmets of a similar typology have been found all over Europe, and this especially powerful one in Holland was found by chance in 1915
Damaged but delectable, this famous glass vessel – known as the Portland vase – is a truly a “riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…” (and I am sure Churchill would agree). The thick pearlescent layer overlaying the dark cobalt blue body is painstakingly carved down as if it were a multilayered sardonyx or
With powerful, bunched musculature (like a pillowcase packed full of bars of soap!) this impressive red torso at the Met is among my favorites, in subject matter and material. He is one of a number of Imperial Roman copies of centaurs from a (presumably) Hellenistic prototype, with the most famous in the Musei Capitolini: a
Hairstyles in Roman society ‘trickled down’, with subjects across the empire adopting fashions ‘set’ by the imperial family, diffused far and wide by a carefully constructed imperial image in a variety of media. And for this particular catastrophe I blame Livia!
Caligula has been the subject of press hatchet jobs from the 1st century A.D. through the 21st century, branded one of the “bad” Roman emperors: tyrannical, cruel, perverted, insane, and convinced of his own divinity. This surviving portrait in Copenhagen is often hailed as evidence of his madness, on account of the partially preserved pigment
Ptolemy I, Alexander the Great’s most canny general, famously diverted Alexander’s funeral cortège as it made its way from Babylon to Macedon, handily taking possession of his body in order to bolster his legitimacy as a Successor. So too did Ptolemy lay claim to Alexander’s image, brilliantly so on coin types struck in the first
A famous passage in Herodotus describes Greek warriors as ‘men of bronze’ rising from the sea. Evocative and certainly describing the hoplites of his time, sheathed in gleaming metal. Was there anything more personal than armor to a man of fighting age? Not only was it protective, but also obscenely expensive (that’s a lot of
Even though worship of Dionysos seems to have been as old as the rest of the Greek pantheon, he was traditionally regarded as a recent addition – an insolent young pup hailing from the exotic East, exuberantly making his way to Mt. Olympus. Tasked by his wily stepmother Hera with conquering India, Dionysos did so
It’s not every day that a eunuch rises from relative administrative obscurity to found a massively successful dynasty, but that is exactly what Philetairos managed.
In an impressive feat of artistry and imagination, this little ivory appliqué grafts a delightfully human, puckish expression onto the hairy caprid face of Pan.
The “Unswept Room” (‘asarotos oikos’ in Greek), was the brainchild of Sosos, the best known mosaicist from the ancient world. It’s a weird and wonderful idea: the intricate tessellated mosaic showed the detritus that might be left behind after a raucous aristocratic dinner party: crustacean shells, olives, chicken bones, fruits, leaves, nut shells, and even
The idea of the ‘thanatos kalos’, the ‘beautiful death’, was a crucial part of the Ancient Greek world view, and specifically referred to the death of a warrior on the battlefield at the absolute pinnacle of his vigor, strength and endurance (physical and mental). This type of death meant the corpse retained elements of this
One of Hera’s epithets was “leukolenos,” or “white-limbed” and I find it delectably appropriate for this metope from Temple E at Selinunte in Sicily. Magna Graecia was flush with natural resources, but good quality white marble was not one of them. Faced with this dearth of raw materials, acrolithic sculpture (meaning composite, with marble combined
Agamemnon returned home, victorious from Troy, to his wife Clytemnestra. Unbeknownst to him, she had been stewing for the last decade (not happy with him for sacrificing their daughter for favorable winds to Troy, or bringing home his concubine) and took a lover while plotting revenge. The ambush Clytemnaestra had in store for her husband