Antiquities Exhibits

The soldier on the plaque wears a tunic and cuirass and a crested and plumed helmet with cheek guards. His spear is beside him. The modeling is bold and chunky but not unaccomplished. The left side of the frame and the front of the soldier's helmet are both chipped. The plaque is sharply convex on a vertical axis and probably decorated a cylindrical box or a piece of furniture. It must have been secured by vertical framing that overlaped the grooved frame on the sides since no attachment holes exist. Plaques of this type normally have been attributed to the 3rd or 4th century, but the similarity of this one in size and style of carving to a plaque from a 1st century BC tomb at Cuma, Italy, raises the question whether this and perhaps other plaques may not be much earlier in date. Image: Carved bone plaque depicting a soldier, probably from furniture or storage chest, 1st century BCE or 3rd-4th century CE, Roman  at the Walters Art Museum courtesy of the museum.

 Many religions of the ancient world were syncretistic, meaning that as they grew and came into contact with other religions, they adopted new beliefs and modified their practices to reflect their changing environment. Both Greek and Roman religious beliefs were deeply influenced by the so-called mystery religions of the East, including the Egyptian cult of Isis, which revealed beliefs and practices to the initiated that remained unexplained, or mysterious, to the uninitiated. Most popular Roman cults had associations with these mystery religions and included the prospect of an afterlife. Zeus Labraundos was a local version of Zeus from Mylasa in Caria (southwestern Asia Minor), of whom very few representations exist except on Roman coins. The front of his apron-like garment is decorated with images of divinities and astral symbols. On his head, he wears a tall headdress with lotus elements reflecting Egyptian influences and the eagle of Zeus at the front. - Walters Art Museum Rema...

In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous creatures who lured nearby sailors to their deaths by enchanting them with music and singing voices which resulted in their shipwreck on the rocky coast of the sirens' island. Roman poets placed them on some small islands called Sirenum scopuli. Later, their "flowery" island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa, was considered to be  Cape Pelorum or the Sirenuse, near Paestum.  Plato said there were three kinds of Sirens: the celestial, creatures of Zeus,  the generative of Poseidon, and the cathartic of Hades. Originally, Sirens were shown to be male or female, but the male Siren disappeared from art around the fifth century BCE.  In addition to their role in menacing seamen, sirens were also thought to accompany souls on the journey to the afterlife, hence their portrayal on funerary art.  Sirens were first believed to look like a combination of women and birds in various  forms in ancient Greek, Etruscan, and Roma...

Tanagra Figurines: From Elegant to Whimsical. Tanagra figurines are mold-cast Greek terracotta figurines produced from the later fourth century BCE up to the 1st century BCE, primarily in the Boeotian town of Tanagra, which has given its name to the whole class but also in Alexandria, Tarentum in Magna Graecia, Centuripe in Sicily and Myrina in Mysia. The vast majority of the figures depict women in everyday apparel with accees sories like hats, wreaths, or fans. But men and boys, Eros, Aphrodite, and grotesques were also subjects. Some character pieces may have represented stock figures from the New Comedy of Menander and other writers. Others continued an earlier tradition of molded terracotta figures used as cult images or votive objects. Researchers think some Tanagra figurines were religious in purpose, but most seem to have been entirely decorative. However, those placed in tombs as grave goods are not thought to have served the deceased in the afterlife in any way unlike fig...

Art from the ancient Mediterranean, Africa, East Asia, Middle East, and the Americas at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. The Walters Art Museum, with its 36,000 objects that span a broad arc of time, geography, and culture, has become a national leader in arts education and is totally free at all times for all members of the public. The Walters’ Conservation and Technical Research department, founded in 1934, is the third oldest museum laboratory in the country. Some of its outstanding artifacts include one of the largest collections of Roman sarcophagi in the U.S., the mummy mask of a handsome high official of the 11th dynasty of Middle Kingdom Egypt, and the glittering Greek gold of the Olbia Treasure. Image: Exquisite gold bracelet with garnets amethysts and emeralds from the Olbia Treasure in modern day Ukraine Greek 2nd-1st century BCE. Photographed at the Walters Art Museum. Note: If you are visiting Washington D.C., Baltimore is just a short train ri...

Transformation: Art of the Americas through October 6, 2019 at The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. Transformation features approximately 20 works from indigenous American cultures, dating from 1200 bce to 1500 ce, that illustrate the metamorphosis of body and spirit. People of the indigenous Americas radically modified their bodies in the belief that altering their physical selves would transform them into deities and  supernatural beings. The objects on view, including gold jewelry, stone sculptures, musical instruments, and a painted ceramic burial urn, powerfully illustrate a fundamental worldview of the ancient Americas: that states of being—human, animal, and divine—were fluid and interchangeable. Image: Maya Polychrome Lidded Urn with Seated Figure 600-900 CE courtesy of the Walters Art Museum.