EPHEMERA : RECENT MUSINGS ABOUT CLASSICAL ART AND RELEVANT TOPICS
This is an unusual and very clever south Italian vase fragment now in the Allard Pierson Museum. Not only has the artist rendered an ingenious cutaway, perspectival view of a temple, he has also shown the god Apollo surveying it and his own cult statue in a rather ambivalent manner… The fragment belonged to a
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There is a lot to love about the Greeks in Sicily: they were horse-crazy, temple-mad, fiercely competitive in all arenas, and produced some of my favorite tyrants and (not incidentally) my favorite coins. And this type is arguably the very finest of them all, showing the nereid (water nymph) Arethusa in delightful profile, surrounded by
On his ten year long (poor Penelope…) nautical journey home from Troy, the wily hero Odysseus encountered epic obstacles, one of the most memorable being the Sirens – mythical creatures (half-women, half-bird) who lured seafarers to their deaths with their irresistibly sweet voices. In the Odyssey, the hero’s temporary lover (poor Penelope…) Circe described the
Hailing from Tiberius’ famous grotto in Sperlonga (south of Rome) this is Diomedes (that gorgeous hand!) absconding with the palladion of Troy (its protectress and cult statue of Athena carved from wood) as that city was pillaged. There is a lot to be said about Sperlonga and the Trojan palladion. But not here! What I
Orpheus is not my favourite personality in Greek mythology (bit of a wimp actually, not adequately rescuing Eurydice from Hades, disrespecting Dionysos, etc), but this fragmentary white-ground cup is an absolute stunner, and who doesn’t love a homicidal maenad. White-ground is a technique usually reserved for Athenian lekythoi – those cylindrical vessels generally associated with
Discovered within a grave on the citadel of Mycenae, during infamous Schliemann’s excavation of grave circle A, a number of curious gold disks were found. Wafer-thin, they are decorated in repoussé with images of schematically rendered butterflies, allowing for considerable 15th century B.C. artistic license. In the same grave, were several delicate scales of gold
On this big bulging pelike, Herakles strikes again! The action man, his lion’s skin and club are this time in Egypt. It’s a heroic vignette known almost exclusively from Athenian red-figure vase painting and goes something like this: our Greek hero finds himself in Egypt, shackled and about to be sacrificed by Busiris (a shadowy
She is not necessarily my favourite of the Athenian Akropolis korai (I tend to prefer her jollier sisters), and sometimes referred to as “sullen”, but her more solemn beauty is important in so many ways. While her format (standing, draped maiden) is familiar from the decades long tradition of glorious sculpted maidens erected on the
Mykonos might readily bring to mind Super Paradise Beach and a debauched party scene, but the island’s real treasure is this enormous vase, extraordinary by every metric, most immediately visible being size at nearly 1.5 meters tall. Dating to the 8th century B.C. the pithos is decorated entirely in relief, and what is shown is
These are three of the seven masks found during Heinrich Schliemann’s famous late 19th century excavations of Mycenae. They were found over the faces of men (and a boy child) in shaft graves within the grave circles in that wondrously fortified citadel, and clearly marked out the individuals buried with them as men of significant
Bedecked in pearls, jewels, gold and purple cloth, and with those remarkable eyes (beneath an imposing unibrow and above a decidedly humorless face), this is the empress Theodora: formidable and radiant at the church of San Vitale in Ravenna in the 6th century AD. It’s a powerful depiction and a masterful mosaic. But it is
I begin to sing of Demeter, the holy goddess with the beautiful hair […] she of the golden double-axe, she who glories in the harvest.’ So begins Hesiod in his Hymn to Demeter, and I cannot seem to put it out of my mind when faced with this spectacle: a life-sized (30 cm tall, in
The lekythos in Classical Athens was a most unusual vase shape, and this white-ground example is really quite special. Unlike so many other vase types, lekythoi were wholly unrelated to the symposium and wine-consuming, and instead were made specially with a carinated inner lip for precision-pouring during libations. Their cylindrical bodies and near vertical walls
Commodus was not necessarily a deranged, power-hungry sadist, but this lazy-eyed, buffed up portrait of the emperor wearing the attributes of Hercules certainly does beg the question… It’s a terrific spectacle, found in the city of Rome on the Esquiline and now in the Musei Capitolini. The emperor’s lush cap of curls is covered by
Anchoring one side of the Met’s luminous sculpture court is an enormous sarcophagus with a quintessentially Roman take on eternal love. Flanked by two imposing lion heads and surrounded by a bucolic retinue, the main scene is mythological, with Selene (moon goddess) being pulled across the sky in a chariot, gazing down on her beloved
‘Sandwich glass’ always strikes me as a slightly hilarious way to describe the most luxurious and refined type of ancient glass. But it’s actually a great description of a hugely sophisticated technique that was perfected in the Hellenistic period. Shallow and cups, seem to have especially sought after but only available to the fabulously wealthy.
Owl skyphoi – those rough and ready cups produced in great quantities in 5th century Athens and imitated widely in Southern Italy – are always pretty great. Normally Athena’s companion animal, the owl, is shown between two olive springs, turning to peer at the viewer. That format is fun, and a easily recognizable visual synecdoche
Reclining slack on a wine skin, his feet dangling off the edge, this little fellow is up to silly, satyr-things. The object is an askos, a flask of sorts (for lack of a better modern term) that might not necessarily have caught my eye, except that it was part of the clever and clean reinstallation
Prized for its luminous, warm glow, amber was something special in the ancient world. Rather than the flinty shine of polished gems, it appeared lit from within. What exactly amber was and where it came from was the subject of considerable consternation in the ancient world, ranging from fanciful (e.g. the tears of Apollo) to
Extreme in all his appetites, Herakles is shown on this superb white ground lekythos at the Met, a vase so clever in its ambiguity. On this small lekythos the hero has climbed upon a tenuous platform upon which an altar sits. He crouches over, his lion skin hood bristling above him, and brandishes two spits
Bristling with hostile porcine energy, this bronze in Boston is a gem of Hellenistic realism. One can almost hear her barking… Rearing slightly back on hind legs and poised to charge, the sow is a most excellent example of bronze-casting on a small scale (not so small, she is nearly 20 cm long). Her eyes
For much of its ancient Greece was a ‘Thalassocracy’ – its settlements clustered close to the coast and inhabitants living and dying by the sea’s bounty and inherent dangers. It is difficult to fully comprehend how the Mediterranean determined daily habits and religion, drove innovation and warfare, and facilitated migration and trade. The behaviors and
There are a lot of ancient representations of Aphrodite to have survived, but this important terracotta one is frequently ignored these days – passed over to focus on her splashier marble sisters. Currently in Berlin, she is usually known as the ‘von Heyl Aphrodite’, acquired by the Berlin Antikensammlung in an auction of the von
When this little beauty caught my eye (as many shiny things do) in a showcase full of Etruscan gold, I did a double take. The head is only about 2 centimeters tall, representing the wild and woolly grand-daddy of all river gods Achelaos, known for his bushy beard, horned head, and bull’s body. A distinctive
Glass in antiquity is a funny thing. Unlike imported semi-precious stones, the material had no intrinsic value; instead, it was wholly based on the difficulty of technique used to work it and thus fluctuated based on technology from a luxury good to humdrum table-ware. Shown here is one of the most fabulous and luxurious examples
Movement and three-dimensionality are words commonly bandied about when it comes to the sculptural innovations of the Hellenistic period, and with this little beauty in the Met, it’s not empty art historical jargon! Although she is small (ca. 20 cm), the ‘Baker dancer’ (as she is often referred to, after the bequest that fortuitously landed
Aristocratic Romans need not swelter on hot days, despite the humid funk of the Tiber in the summer. They had a variety of decadent solutions for living large during heat waves, and this one was the epitome of indoor-outdoor living… It is a fantastic wrap around, trompe l’oeil fresco from a massive underground dining room
Napoleon had a keen eye for beautiful pilfered things to bring back to his capital city, and (in my view) this is one of the best! Known as the “Borghese Krater”, it is a mammoth (nearly 2 meters tall!) vase sculpted out of Pentelic marble, and it is a marvel to behold. Rollicking around the
Imperious is the first word that this extraordinary terracotta bust of Juno brings to mind. Now displayed at the Villa Giulia in Rome, she was found in a Falsiscan sanctuary at Celle, and dates to ca. 380 B.C. Sumptuously robed and crowned, the queen of the Olympian pantheon gazes somewhat down her aquiline nose at
Semi-precious stone, gold, miniature portraiture, and the incomparable queen Arsinöe II: this head (H. 2.2 cm) in the Walters Art Museum has it all in one tiny package! The stone is amethyst, which is a fun one. Not only did it have royal connotations in Egypt for several thousand years prior to this portrait, the
Full of swagger and pre-Caracallan glower, this is one of my favourite portraits of all time, showing a young Roman military man (identity unknown) likely from the mid-2nd century A.D. There is so much to love here: the cultivated, designer stubble, feathery eyebrows, assertive turn of the head, and those barely parted, full lips. He
Genius both in technical mastery and narrative flair, this big skyphos at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts is a stunner and shows Makron, the best of the fifth century Athenian cup painters, at the top of his game. The choice of vase shape is unusual for the Makron (normally he went for the elegant, shallow
Spring is in the air and the waterfowl are getting frisky, which brings to mind a spicy Greek myth that struck has struck a chord with artists for the past 2500 years: Zeus’ seduction Leda. The famously philandering Olympian god transformed himself into a variety of exciting things to court and abduct young beauties. And
With sinuous, scaly neck, ears on high alert, raptor-beak, and that glorious tongue, you can practically imagine this griffin screaming… This bronze (now in the British Museum) is in the shape of an especially fierce griffin, the forepart of a mythical beast with Eastern origins. But while this is an especially fine example (and BIG
This is one of the very greatest examples of diadem from the ancient world. Dubbed the ‘Loeb Diadem’ it currently resides in the Munich Antikensammlung, and said to be from the Pantikapaion (modern Kerch) along the Black Sea. The moniker stems from the first (modern) owner, Dr. James Loeb who acquired it in the early
Ever wonder why the nose-pieces of Greek helmets are sometimes snapped off or bent out of shape? Nose guards on Corinthian helmets don’t bend easily…they tend to be thicker than the rest of the helmet, to protect that delicate cartilaginous protrusion beneath, and when they are bent and missing it’s no accident and nothing to
The weather is warming up, and this delightful (and really quite unusual) amphora at the Villa Giulia seems somehow appropriate. Anyone for a little skinny-dipping? At the centre of the scene is a squared-off man-made structure, evidently some sort of fountain environment, further evidenced by two animal-head shaped spouts at the extreme right and left.
Striking, isn’t it, that a princess with the most tragic life and death (beware of lecherous uncles…dirty Domitian, I’m looking at you!) has one of the sweetest, most appealing portraits of the period?When the ladies of the imperial court presented themselves with fancy (sometimes freaky) fashion hairdos piled high over their aged brows, her restrained
Sprightly and powerful in profile, this dancer is a joy! All buoyant curves and sinuous lines, for a relatively small bronze (18.7 cm tall) there is a lot going on here, and a few unanswered questions… If something doesn’t seem quite ‘classical’ about her at first glance, that’s because she was produced in Etruria (modern
Wearing a battle-ready Athena on the back of one’s head is the definition of fierce fashion. Moreover, this hair ornament from the 2nd century B.C. is a forceful statement of Hellenistic wealth and technical prowess. The central medallion with the bust of Athena has all the things: embossed egg and dart motif, rosettes rendered with
Whether they are shown as stiff little adults or more realistically, children in ancient art (especially in funerary art) are a tricky thing for us modern viewers. Somehow there is an immediate, visceral awareness that they have long since passed away – obvious, but not always such a gut-punch when looking at their grown-up counterparts.
When of the highest quality, mosaics are truly painting with stone – an appealing notion. The height of this art (opus vermiculatum) occurred during the Hellenistic period, specifically in Pergamon, where the mosaicist Sosus (the only one named from antiquity) carried out commissions for the royal palaces. One of his masterpieces was the “unswept room”
She is shiny, she is pretty, and she is a star of the Capitoline Museums! Excavated during the Lanciani’s late 19th century excavations of the Horti Lamiani (the decadent pleasure garden of the Republican period subsumed under imperial control in the 1st century A.D.), the so-called “Esquiline Venus” is one of many important sculptures found
I’ve got a bee in my bonnet lately about coloured marbles – an obsession reactivated by a recent visit to the small (but divine) exhibition at the Capitoline Museums devoted to the subject. My very favourite and historically fascinating type is the so-called Lucullan marble (more commonly known now as ‘africano’) and sourced from Teos,
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
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