Antiquities Exhibits

Relief-decorated pottery with scenes from epic poetry and from Classical Greek tragedy became more popular than painted pottery during the Hellenistic period. The name Megarian was first given to this type of mold-made relief bowl in the late nineteenth century, because some of the first known examples were said to have come from the city of Megara. It has since been demonstrated that bowls of this type, which were produced at a number of different centers, originated in Athens in the third quarter of the third century B.C.E. - Metropolitan Museum of Art Unlike earlier, wheelmade wares with surfaces decorated only with slip, paint, and glaze, these bowls were made in stamp-decorated molds that added decoration in relief. This method of manufacture gave the vessels an embossed effect that may have been intended to imitate metalwork. The vessels were thrown on a potter's wheel while inside the mold in order to produce a smooth and even inner surface while allowing the outside to pick...

PERGAMON. Masterpieces from the Ancient Metropolis with a 360° Panorama by Yadegar Asisi at the Pergamonmuseum temporary exhibition building in Berlin, Germany. This exhibition incorporates approximately 80 of the Antikensammlung’s most important works from Pergamon – including the largest piece of the Telephos frieze from the Pergamon Altar. In preparation for the show, the originals underwent extensive conservation and restorat ion. This is especially true of the large statues of women from the courtyard of the Pergamon Altar, and the sculptures from its roof. With the exception of the Statue of Athena Parthenos from the Pergamon Library (on loan to the Metropolitan Museum in New York), all of the city’s famous sculptures are on view, including the so-called Beautiful Head, the colossal head of Herakles, portrait sculptures of the king, the Archaistic Dancer from the palace, the Prometheus group, and the Athena with cross-strapped aegis. The panorama takes visitors back to the ye...

Kneeling Satyr at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.  Said to be from the vicinity of Pergamon, in modern-day Turkey produced during the 2nd or 1st century BCE, this bronze satyr has traces of silver in his eyes. This statuette depicts a follower of the god of wine, Dionysos. A late-night carouser, he probably served here—most appropriately—as a lamp-stand. The tree probably held oil lamps in its branches. Photographed at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.