Antiquities Exhibits

The Sacrifice of Iphigenia The name, Iphigenia, means "born to strength" and her strength is revealed in a number of 5th century Greek plays by Euripides, Ennius, and others. In Greek mythology, while gathering his fleet in preparation for the war against Troy, Mycenaean king Agamemnon accidentally kills a deer in a grove sacred to the goddess Artermis. To punish him, Artemis conjurs up strong winds so the king's fleet cannot sail. A seer, Calchas reveals that, to appease Artemis, Agamemnon must sacrifice his eldest daughter, Iphigenia in an act of aparchai, the surrender of his "first fruits.". From the Archaic to the Hellenistic period (700-31 BCE), Greeks engaged in aparchai and dekatai, a type of religious tithe, which were deployed not only in a religious context but in politics and constituted a means of settling men's debts to the gods as an expression of human dependence on them. Most scholars have dismissed such tales of human sacrfice as purel...

Jupiter Applique Roman 1st-2nd century CE at the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien in Vienna, Austria. "The Zeus of the Greeks, whom Homer already describes as the "father of men and gods", was also the highest imperial god among the Romans as Jupiter Optimus Maximus (best and greatest). The mighty head of the god, who was always bearded in Greco-Roman antiquity, bears an oak wreath. The oak was sacred to Zeus, and the rustling of i ts leaves was used to prophesy in the oracle sanctuary of Dodona. The hair streaks up over the furrowed forehead in the manner of the portrait of Alexander the Great and frames the broad face with moving, softly modeled curls. A cloth is placed over the back of the head, which falls down on the left side of the body and lies on the right shoulder. The veiling of the head is sacral, but also a reference to the cosmic sphere of clouds and sky. The winged bolt of lightning on its right side should not only be understood as a weapon of God, but a...

Bronze head of Bacchus, Roman, 1st century CE, at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades, California. "Although only the lower portion of the head survives today, this fragment comes from an elaborate half life-size statue of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine. The jagged edge of the neck shows where the head broke from the body. The now-missing top of the head was cast separately and fitted into the lower part. The head depicts Bacchus  as a young man with long, wavy hair pulled back and originally knotted into a bun at the back of his neck. A headband worn around his forehead holds back his hair, and also hides the seam where the two pieces of the head joined." "The head as originally cast was a relatively simple piece, but the unknown artist added many colorful details to enliven the work. The heavily incised line around the lips suggests that they were made separately of copper and inserted into the head. The eyes were inlaid with a contrasting material. A silver in...

Fourth Style Frescos of the Casa del Principe di Napoli, Regio VI, 7,8 in Pompeii. I am working on the illustrations for my translation of Houses in Pompeii, Volume 1, Casa del Principe di Napoli and have also uploaded the color photographs of its Fourth Style frescos from the book to Wikimedia Commons so they can be used for teaching and research independent of the embedded images in the book. (Under U.S. law these images are in the public domain because the original artist has been deceased for more than 70 years.) Roman wall paintings in Pompeii are divided into four periods that were originally delineated and described by the German archaeologist August Mau, 1840–1909. These periods are usually referred to as First, Second, Third, and Fourth but are also known as Incrustation, architectural, ornamental, and intricate. Wall paintings were not only used for decoration, as Roman interiors often had no windows, but were used as a guide to function and social orientation for invit...

Intaglios: Carved Gemstones of the Ancient World. The classical tradition of carving semi-precious gemstones was adopted from the ancient Near East although it was also used by the Indus Valley civilization as well. Flat ring types were developed from cylinder seals used to imprint documents in Mesopotamia, Assyria, and eventually the Minoan world including parts of Greece and Cyprus in the Bronze Age palace societies of Cret e and Mycenae. The design would be cut into the flat surface of a stone using a series of increasingly delicate abrasive powders from harder stones like emery (also known as corundite), a dark granular rock mined in ancient times on the Greek island of Naxos, in conjunction with a hand-drill, probably set in a lathe. Although magnifying lenses existed in the ancient world, scholars are in disagreement as to whether they were used for gem carving because of speculation about their quality and potential for distortion. Carved gems are often called "intaglio...

Silver repoussé pepper pot with gold accents in the anthropomorphic form of a Roman empress from the Hoxne Hoard at the British Museum . Repoussé is a metalworking technique in which a malleable metal is shaped by hammering from the reverse side to create a design in low relief. These techniques are very ancient and have been extensively used all over the world, as they require only the simplest tools and materials, and yet a llow great diversity of expression. They are also relatively economical, since there is no loss or waste of metal, which mostly retains its original size and thickness. During the 3rd millennium BCE, in the Middle East, a variety of semi-mass production methods were introduced to avoid repetitive free-hand work. With the simplest technique, sheet gold could be pressed into designs carved in intaglio in stone, bone, metal or even materials such as jet. The gold could be worked into the designs with wood tools or, more commonly, by hammering a wax or lead "...

Sarcophagus with couple personifying semidivine water and earth deities Roman 2nd century CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Romans absorbed a great deal of Etruscan funerary art practices. Above ground mausolea were rare during the Pre-Republican Period. Underground tombs and tumuli were far more common methods of burial. The early Romans buried those who could not afford such accommodations in mass graves or cremated them. Few remain extant except in Praeneste, or present day Palestrina, where approximately forty early mausolea are still intact. Etruscan influence extended into the early Republic, with mausolea styles becoming more consistent as Roman influence increased throughout the Latin League. One of the most significant of these is the tomb of the Scipios that still exists adjacent to the Via di Porta San Sebastiano just outside of Rome. During the Hellenistic mid-Republic both the interiors and exteriors of mausolea adopted staples of Classical architecture such...

Bath Slave with Balsamarium from ancient Aphrodisias in The Louvre. Discovered on the site of the ancient city of Aphrodisias in Caria (Turkey), this late 2nd or early 3rd century CE statuette of black marble depicts a young slave wearing an exomis, a short tunic gathered at the waist and fastened over one shoulder. In his left hand he holds a balsamarium, a flask holding perfumed oil. The facial features and tightly curled hai r indicate that the slave was an Ethiopian or Nubian. Often used at Aphrodisias for bichrome sculptures (of black and white marble), the black marble here serves to render the color of the skin. The close attention to the musculature and the non-realistic conception of the piece are characteristic of the Aphrodisian sculpture workshops. Sculptors of this period were particularly fond of genre scenes of slaves, old men, beggars and hunchbacks. In his Rhetorica ad Herrenium, Cicero tells us that the Ethiopian slaves employed at the public baths were very popul...

Etruscan frescoes from the Francois Tomb now in the Villa Albani in Rome. In 1857 Alessandro François was commissioned by the Prince of Torlonia to excavate the Ponte Rotto Necropolis in the Etruscan city of Vulci. There he discovered the magnificently frescoed tomb of the Saties (or Seties) family. These frescoes, dated to approximately 330 BCE, depict Caelius Vibenna (whom the Romans believed the Caelian Hill was named after)  and Mastarna (a legendary figure whom the Emperor Claudius identified with Servius Tullius as well as a representation of 'Marce Camitlas' (Latin equivalent 'Marcus Camillus') about to draw his sword against a crouching 'Cneve Tarchunies Rumach' ('Gnaeus Tarquinius of Rome'). Some historians think the figure labeled as Gnaeus Tarquinius is actually Tarquinius Priscus, the legendary king of Rome (r. 616-579 BCE). If so, the painting provides an alternative fate of the king instead of the Roman tradition that Priscus was assass...

Etruscan gold bulla depicting the apotheosis of Achilles at the Gregorian Etruscan Museum in Vatican City. The Romans, who traditionally traced their lineage to Troy, took a highly negative view of Achilles. Virgil refers to Achilles as a savage and a merciless butcher of men, while Horace portrays Achilles ruthlessly slaying women and children. But the Etruscans, influenced in their art and mythology by the Greeks, honored Ac hilles and often portrayed him in their art like they did here on this gold bulla depicting the apotheosis of Achilles. Here, the hero drives a chariot pulled by a team of winged horses. Early dedicatory inscriptions from the Greek colonies around the Black Sea, including Olbia, attest to the existence of a heroic cult of Achilles from the sixth century BCE onwards. The cult was still thriving in the third century CE, when a dedicatory stelae from Olbia refers to an Achilles Pontárchēs (roughly "lord of the Pontus Euxinus"), who was invoked as a pro...

Roman mirror featuring a woodland scene with Artemis at the Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois. Artemis (Roman Diana), or a Roman lady with divine fantasies, after her bath in a rustic, woodland setting, is the subject of the tondo in relief on the back of this Roman hand mirror. Her cloak is draped over the rocks on which she sits, and she holds the end wrapped around a small hand mirror in her raised left hand, a divine celebration of the uses of the mirror in a Roman household. The landscape in front of her, to the right, recalls the paintings and reliefs from houses around the Bay of Naples before the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The quiver of the goddess leans against the base of a garlanded altar with a small herm on top. A second terminal figure, Priapis, the god of gardens and fertility, tilts back while facing to the right on the ledge at the right. The bovine skull in the right foreground suggests the sacrifice after a successful hunt.  Brass repoussé once atta...

Queen Nefertari: Eternal Egypt virtual exhibit online at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art website in Kansas City, Missouri. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, along with cultural institutions across the globe, recently closed to help prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. This meant they had to close their featured exhibition “Queen Nefertari: Eternal Egypt” two weeks earlier than expected. But, Director Julián Zugazagoiti a has provided on online impromptu virtual tour of some of this exceptional exhibit's highlights. "She was known as The One for Whom the Sun Shines. Queen Nefertari was the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II. The exhibition featured magnificence of royal palaces and tombs, including Nefertari’s burial chamber, considered one of the greatest artistic achievements in the Valley of the Queens. It also explored the daily life of the village where tomb builders and artisans lived, worked and worshipped more than 3,000 years ago. Drawn from the worl...

Head of a priest known as the Boston Green Head, Egypt, Late Period, Dynasty 30, 380-332 BCE from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts.  The face of this Egyptian priest is wonderfully lifelike and individual. Light wavy lines indicate the furrows of his brow, and crow’s feet radiate from the outer corners of his eyes. The top of his nose has a pronounced bony ridge. Deep creases run from the edges of his nose to the corners of his mouth. Thin lips and a downturned mouth impart an expression of strength and determination. The slight wart on his left cheek is unique in Egyptian art and also introduces an element of asymmetry an attribute typically incorporated  by artists of the Late Period.  The head was discovered at Saqqara in the Serapeum in 1857-1858 during excavations by Auguste Mariette.  It was subsequently given by Muhammad Said Pasha, viceroy of Egypt, to Prince Napoleon Joseph Charles Paul Bonaparte.  It was then  acquired by collector...

Poppea Brings the Head of Octavia to Nero by G. Muzzioli, 1876, in a private collection. Octavia was the only daughter of the Emperor Claudius by marriage to his third wife, Valeria Messalina. She was named for her great-grandmother Octavia the Younger, the second eldest and full-blooded sister of the Emperor Augustus. She was born in Rome around 39 or 40, shortly before the assassination of Caligula.  As a young girl, her father betrothed her to future praetor Lucius Junius Silanus Torquatus, who was a descendant of Augustus.  After her mother, Messalina, was executed for conspiring to murder her father, Agrippina arranged for Octavia to marry Nero. Although Octavia was admired as empress by the Roman citizen body and viewed as an 'aristocratic and virtuous wife' (according to Tacitus), Nero hated her and tried on several occasions to strangle her (according to Suetonius).  When Poppaea became pregnant with Nero's child, Nero divorced Octavia claiming she was barren a...

Heron-Shaped Aryballos (oil vessel), 580 BCE Miletus, Greece at the Cleveland Art Museum in Cleveland, Ohio.  In the 6th century BC, a particular type of vessel for scented oil was produced in Corinth, Rhodes, and along the western coast of Asia Minor. Primarily animal forms, they are made of unglazed fired clay with painted decoration. This example in the form of a heron was crafted by a Milesian potter. The bird rests with its delicately curving and counter-curving neck nearly touching the ground; the feathers are defined by incision and painted black slip.  Miletus was settled around 1000 BCE.  By 600 BCE, Miletus had become a wealthy center of trade exchanging goods and ideas with the cities of Egypt, Persia and Western Greece.  Greece was not yet a political entity at the time, but shared a Homeric culture with other Greek city states. Greek philosophers Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes were all from Miletus. Image: Ceramic Heron-Shaped Aryballos 580 B...

Gold earring with Nike driving a two-horse chariot at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston. This beautifully detailed earring dates from 350 - 325 BCE. Wearing a belted chiton (tunic), a full-length skirt, and several items of jewelry, Nike, the granddaughter of Poseidon, leans forward, her left hand pulling on the reins of the horses, whose front legs rear sharply. In Greek mythology, Nike flew around battlefields rewarding the vi ctors with glory and fame, symbolized by a wreath of laurel leaves. When Zeus was assembling allies for the Titanomachy against the older deities, Nike assumed the role of the divine charioteer, in which she is often portrayed in Classical Greek art like this exquisite piece of jewelry. The features on the goddess's face are crisp and her expression resolute, while the animals appear startled and tense. Raised as if in flight, Nike's elaborate, feathery, and finely chased wings provide an elegant counterbalance to the dynamic composition. The ornament ...

For These We Fought: Antiquities and the Greek Revolution opened February 11, 2020 at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. This exhibit takes its title from a quote attributed to General Yiannis Makrygiannis, a leading historical figure who admonished Greek fighters not to sell or give away any priceless Greek antiquities. It consists of five sections and presents a total of 26 ancient artifacts juxtaposed with  26 modern works, mainly by European painters showing Greek landscapes of the time, linking Greece to Europe. The objects reflect philhellenism, as illustrated by iconography taken from antiquity, while references will be also made to the loss of antiquities and the contemplation of monumental architecture throughout Greece — from the Acropolis to the Epicurean Apollo Temple at Bassae — that contributed to the Greek people’s understanding of the role antiquities played in forming their collective identity. The show will be supported by digital projection...

"Into China" at the Blackhawk Museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, in Danville, California. Officially opened on January 25, 2020, the exhibit features a large gallery populated with replicas of famous Chinese artwork including the First Emperor of China's Terracotta Warriors and Chariots, a complete set of bells from the tomb of Marquis Yi, originally dated to 433 BCE, a 24-foot-long red Imperial Dragon statue, a scale model of the  Forbidden City, an Imperial Dragon Throne, and other carved statues, paintings, and ceramics. The museum's galleries also feature the art of Africa, Old West memorabilia, and the museum's notable classic automobile collection. Images: Bells from the tomb of the Marquis of Yi, 433 BCE, courtesy of Chinese Wikipedia contributor Zzjgbc. These bells were produced during the interregnum between the Spring and Autumn Period and Warring States Period of ancient China.

Stonehenge: Ancient Mysteries and Modern Discoveries through March 22, 2020 at the Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas. Just a few more days to view 300 original artifacts from the Stonehenge site. Stonehenge, celebrated by scholars, writers and artists for countless generations comes to life in this large-scale exhibition, suitable for all ages and featuring multiple hands-on interactives to amplify key element s of the monument’s mysteries. So much more than a massive marvel of ancient engineering, Stonehenge and its immense stones have captured our imaginations and dared us to explore and explain prehistoric unknowns like never before. Image: Construction mural and Stonehenge with Topaz Sunrise Effects  photographed on my trip there in 2006.

Lost Luxuries: Ancient Chinese Gold through April 19, 2020 at the Middlebury College Museum of Art in Middlebury, Vermont. About 2,500 years ago, Chinese craftsmen started experimenting with goldsmithing, combining foreign techniques with their own local imagery and styles. In the centuries that followed, gold ornaments and vessels became potent communicators of economic status, official rank, gender norms, religious affiliation , and group identity. In the early twentieth century, art collectors across the globe recognized their beauty and historical importance and went to great lengths to obtain them. This exhibition explores the artistry and social meanings of Chinese gold objects produced between the Warring States period (475–221 BCE) and Tang dynasty (618–907 CE), as well as the more recent story of how they entered American museum collections. The ancient artifacts are accompanied by innovative digital features that bring to life recent excavations, traditional goldsmithing ...

Cauldron with Siren and Demon Attachments, Bronze, found in the "Midas Mound" at Gordion Turkey, 740 BCE. This large cauldron, found inside the tomb known as the Midas Mound was likely built by King Midas for his father and was used to store liquids for the funerary feast.  The siren and demon figurines are not only decorative but also symbolic, probably intended to inspire awe and to offer protection to the deceased.  Part of the collections of the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations photographed at the Penn Museum in Philadellphia.  Cauldron with Siren and Demon Attachments, Bronze, found in the "Midas Mound" at Gordion Turkey, 740 BC photographed at the Penn Museum by Mary Harrsch.

Gods in Color - Golden Edition: Polychromy in Antiquity through August 30, 2020 at the Liebieghaus Sculptural Museum in Frankfurt, Germany. The original "Gods of Color" exhibit was first presented in 2008. Now the exhibit has been expanded to include more than 100 objects from international museum collections and the holdings of the Liebieghaus, which encompass 60 recent reconstructions as well as some dating from the nineteenth century, along with 22 prints. Since the exhibition was first on view, the number of reconstructions carried out by the research team has doubled, and new aspects have come under consideration, particularly the polychromy of ancient bronzes. Originally, the painted decoration of an antique sculpture not only enhanced its appearance from the aesthetic point of view and increased its lifelike impression, but also provided the ancient viewer with important information about the identity of the figure depicted. Over the past decade, research has focu...