Sculpture en bronze Artemision cheval de course et jockey Euboie Grèce naufrage hellénique

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  "The Horse and Jockey from Artemision: A Bronze Equestrian Monument from the Hellenistic Period" by Sean Hemingway.

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  DESCRIPTION:  Hardcover with dustjacket.  Publisher: University of California (2004).  Pages: 222.  Size:  10 x 7¼ x ¾ inch; 1¾ pounds.  Summary:      Anyone who visits the National Archaeological Museum in Athens will vividly recall its centerpiece, the Horse and Jockey bronzes that were recovered in pieces from the sea off Artemision in 1928 and 1936. Bronze sculptures were popular throughout the Hellenistic world, the most famous being the Colossus of Rhodes, but very few survive today and the majority of those that do come from shipwrecks.

  The Horse and Jockey is one of the best to survive and forms the focus of this well-illustrated and informative study. Combining `a technical, stylistic, and iconographic examination of the bronzes with a careful assessment of the archaeological, epigraphic, literary, and iconographic evidence for horse racing', the volume discusses the rescue of the bronzes off northern Euboia, their initial condition and restoration before describing and analyzing each part of the horse and its young jockey in turn.

  Hemingway considers the construction of the sculpture in detail, making comparison with similar examples, and assesses attempts by scholars during the last seventy years to date the bronzes and identify their purpose. Art historians have suggested that the bronzes depict a hunting or battle scene but Hemingway sides with those who interpret it as a representation of horse racing, "the most prestigious and splendid of all Greek sports". The book concludes with Helen Andreopolou-Mangou's chemical analysis and metallographic examination of the bronzes.

    CONDITION:  NEW. New hardcover w/dustjacket. University of California (2004) 222 pages. Unblemished except for very mild edge and corner shelfwear to dustjacket. Pages are pristine; clean, crisp, unmarked, unmutilated, tightly bound, unambiguously unread. Shelfwear is principally in the form of very faint "crinkling" to the dustjacket's spine head and to the lower "tips" (the two open lower corners of the dustjacket, front and back). Unfortunately however the faint crinkling to the dustjacket spine head is accompanied by a faint/small edge crumple along the top edge of the front side of the dustjacket, and an accompanying 1/2 inch closed, neatly mended edge tear to the top edge of the front side of the dustjacket, right at the spine head. We carefully repaired the closed edge tear from the underside of the dustjacket, and touched it up with an oil-based sharpie. Consequently it is not a prominent blemish (in fact it is unlikely to be noticed unless you know where to look). Condition is entirely consistent with new stock from a bookstore environment wherein new books might show minor signs of shelfwear, consequence of routine handling and simply being shelved and re-shelved. Satisfaction unconditionally guaranteed. In stock, ready to ship. No disappointments, no excuses. PROMPT SHIPPING! HEAVILY PADDED, DAMAGE-FREE PACKAGING! Meticulous and accurate descriptions! Selling rare and out-of-print ancient history books on-line since 1997. We accept returns for any reason within 14 days! #8393i.

 

  PLEASE SEE DESCRIPTIONS AND IMAGES BELOW FOR DETAILED REVIEWS AND FOR PAGES OF PICTURES FROM INSIDE OF BOOK.

PLEASE SEE PUBLISHER, PROFESSIONAL, AND READER REVIEWS BELOW.

  PUBLISHER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  In 1928, and again in 1937, parts of a large-scale bronze horse and nearly complete jockey were recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision in Greece, where they had gone down in a shipwreck. These original Hellenistic sculptures, known together as the 'Horse and Jockey Group from Artemision', are among the very few surviving bronze sculptures from antiquity.

  Sean Hemingway has been allowed by the National Museum in Athens to investigate the horse and jockey statuary group as no one ever has before, and in this book, combining archaeological and art historical methods of investigation, he provides the first in-depth study of this rare and beautiful monument. New technical analyses of the statues by Helen Andreopoulou-Mangou form an appendix to the volume.

  Hemingway begins with an introduction to Hellenistic bronze statuary and what we know about this extraordinary class of ancient sculpture. He then recounts with riveting detail the discovery and painstaking restoration of the statue group, describing the technique of its creation and carefully reviewing scholarly knowledge and speculation about it.

  He also provides a valuable compendium of what is known about ancient Greek horse racing, the most prestigious and splendid of all Greek sports. After a full consideration of all the available evidence, he speculates further about the work's original meaning and function. His study provides a glimpse of the excellence achieved by Hellenistic bronze sculptors, and it will become the definitive resource on this unique sculpture from ancient Greece.

REVIEW:  In 1928, and again in 1937, parts of a large-scale bronze horse and nearly complete jockey were recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision in Greece, where they had gone down in a shipwreck. This work begins with an introduction to Hellenistic bronze statuary and what we know about this extraordinary class of ancient sculpture.

REVIEW:  In 1928 and again in 1936, parts of a large-scale bronze horse and nearly complete jockey were recovered from the sea off cape Artemision in Greece, where they had gone down in a shipwreck. These original Hellenistic sculptures, known together as the 'Horse and Jockey Group from Artemision,' are among the very few surviving bronze sculptures from antiquity. This book provides the first in-depth study of this rare and beautiful monument.

REVIEW:  This will be the definitive study of the history, cultural context, and artistic composition of one of the very few surviving Hellenistic bronze sculptures, that of a horse and jockey from Artemision.

REVIEW:  Seán Hemingway is Associate Curator in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

REVIEW:  Seán Hemingway is Curator in the Department of Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A seasoned archaeologist, Dr. Hemingway has excavated prehistoric, classical and Roman sites in Greece and Spain and he is currently the metals specialist for the Palaikastro excavations in eastern Crete. Hemingway has assisted with the re-installation of large parts of the permanent collection at the Met, including the Archaic and Classical Greek Galleries, the Cypriot Galleries, and the Hellenistic and Roman Galleries. He has also curated special exhibitions including "Historic Images of the Greek Bronze Age" (2011), "Sleeping Eros" (2013), and "The Boxer: An Ancient Masterpiece" (2013). He is the author of numerous scholarly publications including a book on Hellenistic bronze sculpture, "The Horse and Jockey from Artemision: A Bronze Equestrian Monument of the Hellenistic Period", and a novel, The Tomb of Alexander. [Getty Museum].

   

  TABLE OF CONTENTS:

List of Illustrations.

Preface.

1. Hellenistic Bronze Statuary: An Introduction.

2. An Early Underwater Rescue Excavation.

3. Technical Analysis.

4. Questions of Style and Identification.

5. Ancient Greek Horse Racing.

6. Conclusions.

Appendix: Chemical Analysis of the Horse and Jockey Group from Artemision in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, by Helen Andreopoulou-Mangou.

Notes.

Bibliography.

Index

  PROFESSIONAL REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  This is the first thorough treatment of the well-known Horse and Jockey from Artemision. Never before has the full story of the underwater rescue been told; nor has the history of the group's conservation been published. The fascinating early restoration drawings and early photographs are all published here, many for the first time. Hemingway's up-to-date technical analysis, combined with his analysis of style and iconography and his discussion of ancient horse racing, make his book fundamental for all who wish to study this statue group. Indeed, with its attention to discovery, conservation, technique, historiography, and style, the book will serve as a model for future scholarship on ancient sculpture. [Carol Mattusch, author of "Classical Bronzes: The Art and Craft of Greek and Roman Statuary"].

REVIEW:  One of the most appealing and popular sculptures in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens is the bronze Horse and Jockey Group, which was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision at the north end of the Greek island of Euboia. Parts were first found in 1928 with the remainder in 1936. Seán Hemingway began studying the group in a Bryn Mawr College seminar in 1992, eventually including it in his 1997 doctoral dissertation on all the Artemision bronzes. It is now, deservedly, the focus of this monograph. This book is the latest addition to forty-four others in the distinguished series on Hellenistic culture and society published by the University of California Press.

  Hemingway's book consists of five chapters with a conclusion and an appendix containing the results of chemical analyses and metallographic examination of the sculpture performed by Helen Andreopoulou-Mangou of the Chemistry Laboratory of the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. The Horse and Jockey is special in being one of the few original large-scale bronzes securely dated to the Hellenistic period. It is approximately life-size in scale and consists of a horse in mid-gallop, on which is seated a youthful jockey, who looks back over his shoulder.

  Remarkably, the unknown sculptor of this masterpiece has captured the excitement and vitality of a horserace in mid-action. Hemingway's scholarly and sober study combines a technical, stylistic, and iconographic examination of the group with archaeological, epigraphic, literary, and iconographic information on ancient horse racing to give a better understanding of the monument and the purpose of its commission. Hemingway helpfully begins his investigation of the sculpture in Chapter 1 by an explanation of hollow lost-wax casting methods and a brief survey of known Hellenistic bronzes.

  Contained within this corpus are such works as the sleeping Eros, the portrait of a philosopher from the Antikythera shipwreck, and the cache of bronze statues found in Piraeus in 1959, including the statue of Apollo, which many scholars think is genuinely Archaic rather than an example of Hellenistic archaistic style. Hellenistic bronze statuary served fundamentally public functions, and, to judge from the surviving examples, they consisted of statues of deities and heroes, portraits of rulers, philosophers, and prominent individuals, statues of athletes, and animal sculptures. The Horse and Jockey group is unusual in combining an athletic sculpture with an animal.

  Chapter 2, "An Early Underwater Rescue Excavation," providing basic documentation and description of the two statues, reads like an adventure tale involving thieves, stormy weather, perilous seas, and dramatic discoveries. An account of the find-spot and original recovery is given, as well as subsequent investigations of the Artemision wreck site. The conservation history of the statues is recounted with a report of the cleaning and restoration methods used. A thorough description of the preserved fragments, including drawings made by the author, is given.

  Chapter 3 discusses the manufacturing technique of the pieces. Careful visual examination in the National Archaeological Museum revealed much information about the method of casting and later cold working of the surfaces of the figures. Both interior and exterior inspections were done. A review of knowledge gained about manufacturing techniques from other large-scale bronze equestrian statues, especially in the Hellenistic period, provides parallels for the techniques used to the make the Horse and Jockey. There are no exact parallels for the Artemision Horse and Jockey Group, however, since comparative equestrian statues are mostly of a marching "cavalry" type.

 

  Chapter 4 discusses the style, chronology, and iconography of both statues in the group and takes into consideration previous scholarship, which offers a range in interpretations and dates for the pieces. An examination of the style and iconography of comparable works provides a more knowledgeable background against which to judge the Horse and Jockey Group. Since the Horse and Jockey Group is one of the very few monumental representations of a horse race from Greek antiquity, Chapter 5 is devoted to the history of the single-horse race.

  The origins of the single-horse race in the Orientalizing period (seventh century B.C.) are traced and then its development through the Archaic and Classical period to the end of the Hellenistic period. The single-horse race was a feature of the games at panhellenic sanctuaries and elsewhere and appears to have been a more limited activity than other types of horsemanship, judging from evidence which begins as early as the Geometric period. In addition to archaeological evidence, including sculpture, vase painting, and architecture in the form of hippodromes, there is epigraphic evidence, especially dedications and victor lists, and literary evidence.

  Chapter 6 gives a synthesis of the study and an interpretation of the statue group. Although the two parts of the Horse were found separately and at a distance from each other, Hemingway has convincingly demonstrated in his study that they belong to the same statue and that the Jockey goes with the Horse. A restoration of the group carried out in 1972 contains some problems: the Horse's right foreleg could not be repositioned without damage and should be higher, and the style of the tail is too rigid. The Jockey leans too much to the left and his right leg should match the left in turning in to goad the Horse with his spurs.

  Greater thickness of the bronze in the hind legs of the Horse indicates that they would have been the primary supports of the group. Marks of wear on the Horse's head and a pin beneath the chin support the reconstruction of an elaborate bridle, now lost. Both of the statues were cast in sections by the indirect lost-wax process and pieced together by flow welding. The Horse's hoofs and the Jockey's skin were originally patinated black. Original inlays were the eyes of both figures and the brand of a Nike figure on the Horse's right hind thigh. Part of the inlaid right eye of the Jockey remains in place, although badly corroded.

  Scholars have previously dated the group from the late fourth century B.C. to the first century B.C. Hemingway concludes that the most likely date for the group is the second half of the second century B.C., based on a combination of classicizing features and realism in both statues, and the depiction of recognizable ethnicity and the twisting pose of the Jockey. The statues have been attributed previously to various sculptors, including Kalamis, Lysippos and the Pergamene school, but Hemingway does not think that any of these attributions can be supported given the lack of enough original bronze works that can be securely dated to the Hellenistic period.

  The Jockey's physiognomy and original black skin are those of an Ethiopian, but his hairstyle is Greek, which implies that he is of mixed heritage. He is most likely a professional or trained jockey. After considering three likely contexts for the original function of the Horse and Jockey (funerary, decorative, or dedicatory), Hemingway argues that the best interpretation is that the group was set up in a sanctuary to honor one or more victories in horse races. The large size of the monument and the high quality of the sculpture suggest commission by a royal or wealthy Greek aristocratic.

  Consideration of several late Hellenistic shipwrecks carrying cargoes of sculpture (the Antikythera, the Mahdia, and the Artemision) leads Hemingway to conclude that the Horse and Jockey group was plunder of some kind. He goes on further to build a strong circumstantial case for its having been plundered from Corinth in 146 B.C. by Mummius, who then gave it to his first general, Attalos, who was shipping it to Pergamon when the ship was wrecked in the Trikiri channel north of Euboia. With a terminus ante quem of 146 B.C. and a stylistic analysis placing the statue in the second half of the second century B.C., the group is given a date of about 150-146 B.C.

  Hemingway is to be commended for producing a highly readable account of one of the most compelling statues to have survived from antiquity, and for his approach, which alternately presents a focus narrowed upon the Horse and the Jockey, then widened to include its context of other Hellenistic bronzes and its subject relating to Greek horseracing as one of the athletic events in the cult activity of religious sanctuaries. The monograph is an invaluable resource on not only this particular statue group but on these other topics as well.

 

  In addition, the study is a model in its presentation of visual evidence: photographs are plentiful, readable, and relevant; drawings are included that show in great detail the metallurgical joins, cast patches, hammered patches, modern restorations and added elements such as screws, holes and loses, and even enigmatic features. These drawings were made by the author himself of each of the four main views of both the Horse and the Jockey. It is a painstaking study that I recommend highly. [Bryn Mawr Classical Review].

  READER REVIEWS: 

  REVIEW:  The horse is running at full gallop, while the young rider, wearing a short tunic, clings to power  to stay astride. Probably took the reins in his left hand and a whip in his right.  The work is a fascinating example of human passion that the artists of the Hellenistic period achieved  instill in his most inspired. Was found in pieces in the area of a shipwreck off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea, like Zeus or Poseidon. Dating from around 140 B.C. A remarkable book comprising a compelling and fascinating examination of a remarkable ancient artifact.

REVIEW:  Five stars!  Exceptionally well presented and compelling history!

  ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND: 

  REVIEW:  The Jockey of Artemision is a large Hellenistic bronze statue of a young boy riding a horse, dated to around 150–140 B.C. It is a rare surviving original bronze statue from Ancient Greece and a rare example in Greek sculpture of a racehorse. Most ancient bronzes were melted down for their raw materials some time after creation, but this one was saved from destruction when it was lost in a shipwreck in antiquity, before being discovered in the twentieth century.

  It may have been dedicated to the gods by a wealthy person to honor victories in horse races, probably in the single-horse race. The artist is unknown. The statue was found in a shipwreck off Cape Artemision, in north Euboea, which was discovered in 1926. Also found in the wreck were parts of the Artemision Bronze. The first parts of the equestrian statue were recovered in 1928, with more pieces found in 1936 and/or 1937.

  The statue was reassembled, after restoration of the horse's tail and body, and it went on display at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens in 1972. The original artist and the circumstances under which the work was created are unknown, however, Seán Hemingway has suggested that it may have been plundered from Corinth in 146 B.C. by the Roman general Mummius in the Achaean War and given to Attalus but lost while in transit to Pergamon.

  The equestrian statue is approximately life-size, with a length of 2.9 meters (9.5 feet) and 2.1 meters (6.9 feet) high. It was cast in pieces using an indirect lost wax process and then assembled with flow welding. Some parts are missing, such as the rider's whip and reins, and the horse's bridle. The horse and its rider are rendered realistically, as if captured as the horse springs away in mid-gallop, with its rear feet on the ground and its front legs raised.

  The bronze of the rear legs is thicker, indicating that they were the statue's primary means of support. The image of the goddess Nike is engraved on the horse's right thigh, holding a wreath in raised hands; a brand for racehorses in Ancient Greece. The horse dwarfs its jockey, a boy only 84 centimeters (2.76 feet) tall and perhaps 10 years old, possibly from Africa based on his physiognomy and original black patinated surface coloring.

  His hairstyle, however, is Greek, suggesting a mixed heritage. He rides bareback without a saddle. He wears sandals and a short chiton, and looks back over his left shoulder. [Wikipedia]

  REVIEW:  In the fall of 1928, the fragmentary bronze statues of a horse, a boy, and a god were retrieved from a sunken ship near Cape Artemision. After much study and restoration, the horse and boy were paired together as a single sculptural group. The features of the horse and rider, and all of the study and debate that surrounds them, make a wonderful study of Hellenistic bronze and where it is similar to and different from Classical Greek statuary. The pair is captured in a moment of high drama. The horse has two legs lifted far off the ground, giving the impression that he gallops at full speed.

  His wide eyes, flattened ears, and exaggerated veins vividly show his strain. His wide nostrils, parted mouth, and lolling tongue almost enable the viewer to see him panting and frothing as he pushes through to the end of the race. The boy sits astride his horse, his body leaning close to the animal’s neck to counterbalance the horse’s bounding gait. In one hand he grips a fragment of the preexisting reins while the other hand is poised to hold a whip or crop.

 

  The drapery of his simple clothing and the locks of his hair flutter freely in the wind. His mouth hangs slack and open, showing his exhaustion to match that of the horse. Here, the bronze acts as a very expressive medium. The metallic sheen of his skin and the hide of the horse give off the appearance of glistening sweat. The boy’s full lips and broad nose are taken by many scholars to be an indication of Ethiopian descent.

  The dating of the Horse and Jockey is a subject of lively debate among art historians and archaeologists. While most scholars now agree that the galloping racehorse and the small boy belong together, many still argue over whether they were created in the same era. In his book, The Horse and Jockey from Artemision, Sean Hemingway devotes a great deal of time to the survey of these different theories. Many agree that the face of the horse, as well as the balance and symmetry of its pose, reflect Classical sensibilities, specifically as seen in relief sculptures of horses (i.e. the frieze at the Parthenon).

  Others, however, quickly point out the strained veins and folds of skin on the horse as well as the small tufts of fur on its ankles show a Hellenistic tendency to dramatic expression and decorative detail.The boy is more consistently seen as a Hellenistic contribution. This is due to the attention given to the boy’s racial identity as well as the expressive drapery peeling back in the wind and the exertion and exhaustion shown in his face. Those who believe the group is partially a pastiche further complicate the discussion. A pastiche is a work that consciously mimics another era.

  Regardless of whose theories are correct, this horse and his boy showcase a paradigm often seen in Hellenistic sculpture—the combination of Greek Classical ideals with added expression, drama, and energy. [Furman University].

  REVIEW:  In the Greco-Roman world, racehorses were potent symbols used by both individuals and the state to express power, encourage civic pride, and celebrate special events. For the Greeks, chariot racing likely began sometime around 1500 B.C. and became a central element of their most sacred festivals. A memory of these early contests appears in Homer’s description of the funeral games honoring the fallen warrior Patroclus, during which Greek kings and heroes race once around a tree stump for the prize of a female slave.

  Perhaps a century after the founding of the Olympics in 776 B.C., chariot and jockeyed races were included in the games. This provided an opportunity for families to display their “hippic”—or horse—wealth as social and political capital, explains historian Donald Kyle of the University of Texas at Arlington. Yet for the Romans, hippic contests were just as often part of extravagant state-sponsored displays intended to entertain the masses.

  The historian Livy says that the first and largest Roman hippodrome, the Circus Maximus, was built by Lucius Tarquinius Priscus, the legendary fifth king of Rome (reigned 616–579 B.C.), in a valley between the Aventine and Palatine hills. Though originally a simple open oval space similar to a Greek hippodrome, the Romans gradually created a massive stadium-style building that, by the first century A.D., could accommodate perhaps as many as 250,000 spectators.

  While there were certainly other crowd-pleasing events such as gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome, “chariot racing is the earliest and longest-enduring major spectacle in Roman history,” says Kyle. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  The deep sea floor holds fabulous art from the ancient past. Deep submergence technology allows access to our distant cultural foundations. A beautiful bronze statute of Zeus (or possibly Poseidon) was recovered from a shipwreck at Cape Artemision, Greece. It is a fine example of the Severe style of the early Classical period, 5th century B.C. This life-sized bronze statue in Athens' National Archaeological Museum is known as "The Antikythera Youth". It was recovered in 1903 from the wreck at Antikythera. The figure may represent Paris holding the Apple of Strife, referring to a mythical event that ultimately led to the Trojan War.

  The Horse and Jockey Boy composite bronze statue was trawled up in pieces in 1928 and 1936 at the northern tip of the island of Euboea, near Cape Artemision. The statue dates to the Hellenistic period The go-to academic reference for this work of art is Sean Hemingway, "The Horse and Jockey from Artemision" (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 2004). The head of another bronze statue was recovered from the Antikythera shipwreck, known as the Philosopher. Greek divers collected other components of the statue during the salvage of the wreck in 1903. This, too, is on display in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

  Many fabulous works of art from the ancient world were recovered from sites underwater. Bronze statues, particularly, are more likely to survive underwater than on land. This is because bronze is a valuable material useful for many applications. Ancient bronze might originally have been cast into a statue, but later melted down and re-formed into swords or shields if an enemy threatened. Later still, that bronze could have been recycled to make church bells or cannons. Some of the finest ancient works of art in bronze come from shipwrecks or other underwater sites.

 

  Several excellent examples are found in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece. The Antikythera shipwreck collection of bronze and marble art works is a spectacular display at that museum. Some of the large marble statues from the Antikythera wreck are displayed in the museum's courtyard. Alongside the works of art is a placard with the following text: "The Antikythera Shipwreck. An important group of sculptures in marble and bronze was discovered by chance by sponge-fishers from Symi at Easter 1900. It lay on the bottom of the sea off the east coast of Antikythera at a depth of about 50 meters."

  "During the underwater explorations, which lasted for ten months and was carried out under very adverse conditions, the same sponge-fishers retrieved 108 objects made of bronze and marble, the majority of which were statues and statuettes. They also recovered some pottery, most of it coarse-ware. The marble pieces were badly corroded by the action of the sea water. However, figures of gods have been identified among them (Apollon, Zeus, Hermes and Aphrodite) and heroes (Herakles, Odysseus, Achilles or Diomedes), as well as torsos of athletes or dancers, and there are some impressive statues of horses."

  "The statues are copies or reworkings of originals dating from the Classical period, from the 4th century BC., and from the Hellenistic period, and some were probably part of groups or large-scale compositions. Most of the sculptures from the wreck date to the 1st century B.C. Two bronzes from the shipwreck are on display in the National Museum: the statue of a nude boy, known as the ‘Antikythera Youth’ attributed to the sculptor Euphranor or his school and the head and parts of the body of a statue of a philosopher.

  One of the most important finds from the shipwreck is the complicated bronze mechanism known as the ‘Antikythera Mechanism’ which is probably an instrument to measure time and the seasons, based on the positions of the planets. This rare find is on display in the Bronze Collection. The port of departure of the ship that sank with its precious cargo off Antikythera in the 1st century B.C. remains unknown. It was probably Delos or, according to a different view, a port on the Asia Minor coast. Its destination, however, must have been Rome.

  During the troubled periods of history associated with the Roman conquest of the Hellenistic world, works of art, especially sculptures, were assembled in this city from all over the Greek world, either as spoils of war or as collector’s items. What else lies on the deep sea floor, awaiting discovery? [Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution].

  REVIEW:  The ancient Greeks were great innovators in the use of bronze for sculpture. Seán Hemingway examines Greek bronze sculpture from its beginnings in the Geometric period (circa about 8th–7th century B.C.) through and with special emphasis on the Hellenistic period (323–31 B.C.). He elucidates the achievements of Greek master sculptors by looking closely at a number of outstanding examples of Greek bronze sculpture. The Archaic Greek male figure par excellence was the kouros or nude male youth standing at rest but the medium of bronze offered opportunities for dynamic sculptural compositions that began to be explored in the Late Archaic and Early Classical periods – gods, hunters, athletes and warriors provided a wide variety of new types. [Getty Museum].

  REVIEW:  Some of the oldest myths in the Indo-European tradition concern the existence of supernatural or divine horses. The earliest text in Sanskrit, or indeed any Indo-European language—the family that includes most of the main languages of Europe, South Asia, and parts of western and central Asia—is the Rig Veda, a collection of sacred hymns written sometime in the late second millennium B.C., during the Bronze Age. Among its more than 1,000 hymns are prayers and poems appealing to and honoring the gods.

  At the time the Rig Veda was set down, the myths it references were already centuries, if not millennia, old, but it was during the Bronze Age that Indo-European-speaking peoples began to travel and trade across great distances, carrying with them beliefs that were then communicated across a vast territory, stretching from Asia to Scandinavia. Archaeological evidence collected in Europe provides the strongest parallels for early Indo-European myths first set down on the Indian subcontinent, says Kristian Kristiansen of the University of Gothenberg.

  One of the most important of these shared Bronze Age myths is that of the sun cult, wherein the sun’s daily journey is symbolized by a horse drawing a chariot across the heavens. This is also widely interpreted as the journey from death to the afterlife. In both ancient Greek and Norse mythology, too, there are supernatural horses. The winged stallion Pegasus is the offspring of the god Poseidon and the Gorgon Medusa, from whose neck he was born when she was beheaded by Perseus. After taming Pegasus, the Corinthian hero Bellerophon attempts to ride the horse to the gods’ home on Mount Olympus.

  But Zeus compels the horse to buck, sending Bellerophon back to Earth as punishment for his pride. Pegasus continues his journey heavenward to live in Zeus’ stables and carry his thunderbolts. Zeus also set Pegasus in the sky as a constellation marking the arrival of spring. Odin, the powerful Norse god of war, poetry, knowledge, and wisdom, also has a divine horse in his service. Renowned for his speed, the eight-legged horse Sleipnir carries Odin on his journeys through the Nine Worlds that are the homelands of the elements found in the Norse worldview—humanity, tribes of gods and goddesses, giants, fire, ice, dwarves, elves, and death. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  Once horses were domesticated, they began to play an important role in funeral rituals. Archaeologists have found horse bones mingled with cow and sheep remains in human burials on the Eurasian steppe dating to as early as 5000 B.C. All the animals were probably sacrificed and eaten during funeral rituals. Later, the increasingly singular role horses played in human lives was reflected in more elaborate burial rites that were practiced by unrelated cultures from China to England.

  Perhaps the first to accord horses an honored role in burials were the Sintashta people, a sedentary culture that built large fortified settlements south of the Ural Mountains around 2000 B.C. Important members of this society were buried with their chariots and the horses that pulled them. Unlike other livestock that may have been sacrificed and eaten during funeral rites, these horses went with their owners to the afterlife intact.

  Many steppe cultures that came after the Sintashta also practiced horse burials. In Siberia, the fifth-century B.C. Iron Age Pazyrk people buried their noble dead in huge mounds, accompanied by horses outfitted with cloth saddles and dramatic headdresses. But it was in China that horse burials achieved their most elaborate expression. Excavation of the sixth-century B.C. tomb of Chinese ruler Duke Jing of Qi has revealed the remains of 200 horses, which would have represented a vast fortune.

 

  The tomb has not been fully excavated, and some archaeologists estimate it might have held up to 600 horses. This number is only rivaled by representations of horses accompanying the terracotta army discovered in pits near the famed mausoleum of China’s first emperor, Qin Shihuangdi (r. 220–210 B.C.). Archaeologists estimate that 130 chariots were buried there, along with bronze and terracotta depictions of more than 650 horses. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  By the mid-second millennium B.C., the use of horses in warfare had become common throughout the Near East and Egypt. This development was made possible by advances both in the design of chariots, in particular the invention of the spoked wheel, which replaced the solid wooden wheel and reduced a chariot’s weight, and the introduction of all-metal bits, which gave chariot drivers more control over their horses. Though chariot warfare was expensive, and its effectiveness was determined by the durability of the chariots and suitability of the terrain, the vehicles became essential battlefield equipment.

  According to archaeologist Brian Fagan of the University of California, Santa Barbara, Bronze Age chariots acted largely as mobile archery platforms, with the bulkier four-wheeled ones also being used to carry kings into battle or to allow generals to observe the fighting. Lighter two-wheeled versions, such as those found in Tutankhamun’s tomb, were better suited to carrying a single archer and a driver. One of the most informative sources for the use of chariot horses in the ancient Near East is a tablet discovered in 1906–1907 in the royal archive at the Hittite site of Hattusa in Anatolia.

  The “Kikkuli Text,” written in cuneiform script and dating to around 1400 B.C., is named after its author. Kikkuli introduces himself in the first line as a “horse trainer from the land of the Mitanni,” a state in what is now northern Syria and southeastern Turkey. He then describes an approximately 184-day training cycle that begins in the fall, in which he includes instructions for the horses’ feeding, watering, and care, recommending stable rest, massages, and blankets. For nearly a millennium, warhorses were used almost exclusively to pull chariots, but after about 850 B.C. chariotry began to decline. Horses, however, never lost their usefulness in battle.

  Within about 150 years, cavalry, which is suitable to almost any terrain, virtually replaced chariotry in the Near East, and, eventually, horse-drawn chariots were employed primarily for racing, in ceremonial parades, and as prestige vehicles. In time this happened not only in this region, but across most of Europe as well. The rise of true cavalry was the determining force behind many of the major events that influenced European history, including Charles Martel’s defeat of the Saracens at the Battle of Poitiers in A.D. 732, the creation of the Holy Roman Empire, and the victory of William the Conqueror at the Battle of Hastings in A.D. 1066. “I think that the most important development in history with respect to animals was the adoption of the horse as a weapon of war,” says Fagan.  [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  The earliest evidence for encounters between humans and horses is found at Paleolithic sites in Eurasia. Butchered horse bones indicate that early peoples used horses as an important source of food. But these swift and spirited animals also clearly fired the human imagination in ways other animals did not. Depictions of them abound in Paleolithic cave art, where horses appear more frequently than any other animal. In the New World, where it originated, the horse became extinct after the last Ice Age, some 9,000 years ago.

  A changing climate, and possibly overhunting—by that time humans shared the environment—may have been factors. In much of the Old World, too, horse species disappeared as forest replaced steppe, shrinking their habitat. But on the steppe of what is today Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan, Equus caballus, the species to which modern horses belong, continued to thrive in large numbers. Sometime after 5000 B.C., people in the region who were already familiar with domesticated cattle and sheep may have taken the first step toward taming the horse.

  Despite being powerful and aggressive, horses had an important advantage over other animals that had already been domesticated: “Horses are easier to feed through harsh winters than sheep or cattle,” says Hartwick College archaeologist David Anthony. “They are well adapted to winter on the steppe, and can break through ice and snow with their hooves to reach winter grass to feed themselves.” There is indirect evidence, such as bone carvings depicting horses together with cattle, that people on the steppe took advantage of this trait and began to maintain herds of horses for winter meat.

  There is also evidence that riding horses soon followed domestication. Anthony and his colleague Dorcas Brown have analyzed horse teeth dating to around 3500 B.C. from Kazakhstan and have found wear patterns consistent with the use of rope or leather bits. “I think the first person to climb on a horse was an adolescent or child,” says Anthony. “Some kid probably jumped on the back of a mare as a prank and everyone looked on in astonishment.” But the advantages of horseback riding must have become immediately apparent.

  It not only made it much easier to manage livestock, but would also have allowed for maintaining larger herds. Riding horses enabled the spread of goods and ideas, not the least of which was horseback riding itself, as never before. The domesticated horse transformed people’s material lives, but it also caused a more subtle, yet radical, change in human culture. “The world opened up to people who could travel on horseback,” says Anthony. “Their sense of distances and what was possible in life would have changed dramatically.” [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  The last people to have their lives transformed by the horse were the indigenous cultures of the New World, whose ancestors had last seen the horse 9,000 years earlier. The reintroduction of the animal began in 1519, when Hernán Cortés landed in Mexico with 500 men and 15 horses. In the campaigns against the Aztecs and other Mexican nations that ensued, Cortés’ small cavalry made a critical difference. A mounted charge into the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan ended 80 days of pitched warfare there, and Cortés was never seriously challenged again.

  Once horses returned to the grasslands where they had originated, they helped Plains Indians reshape their culture almost overnight. Horses replaced dogs as pack animals, which enabled people to transport a great deal more goods. Enterprising riders could now chase down buffalo on horseback, and become much more efficient hunters. And some tribes, such as the Lakota, even abandoned agriculture to become full-time equestrian hunters.

  Increased mobility and horse raiding also led to a rise in warfare, which became endemic on the Plains. For a time, their mastery of the horse helped the Plains Indians hold off American settlers’ westward expansion, but even the best riders the world has ever seen could not challenge the massive population influx made possible by the steam locomotive, which, soon after its invention, came to be known as the “iron horse.” [Archaeological Institute of America].

  REVIEW:  Greek sculpture from 800 to 300 B.C. took early inspiration from Egyptian and Near Eastern monumental art, and over centuries evolved into a uniquely Greek vision of the art form. Greek artists would reach a peak of artistic excellence which captured the human form in a way never before seen and which was much copied. Greek sculptors were particularly concerned with proportion, poise, and the idealized perfection of the human body, and their figures in stone and bronze have become some of the most recognizable pieces of art ever produced by any civilization.

  From the 8th century B.C., Archaic Greece saw a rise in the production of small solid figures in clay, ivory, and bronze. No doubt, wood too was a commonly used medium but its susceptibility to erosion has meant few examples have survived. Bronze figures, human heads and, in particular, griffins were used as attachments to bronze vessels such as cauldrons. In style, the human figures resemble those in contemporary Geometric pottery designs, having elongated limbs and a triangular torso. Animal figures were also produced in large numbers, especially the horse, and many have been found across Greece at sanctuary sites such as Olympia and Delphi, indicating their common function as votive offerings.

  The oldest Greek stone sculptures (of limestone) date from the mid-7th century B.C. and were found at Thera. In this period, bronze free-standing figures with their own base became more common, and more ambitious subjects were attempted such as warriors, charioteers, and musicians. Marble sculpture appears from the early 6th century B.C. and the first monumental, life-size statues began to be produced. These had a commemorative function, either offered at sanctuaries in symbolic service to the gods or used as grave markers.

  The earliest large stone figures (kouroi - nude male youths and kore - clothed female figures) were rigid as in Egyptian monumental statues with the arms held straight at the sides, the feet are almost together and the eyes stare blankly ahead without any particular facial expression. These rather static figures slowly evolved though and with ever greater details added to hair and muscles, the figures began to come to life. Slowly, arms become slightly bent giving them muscular tension and one leg (usually the right) is placed slightly more forward, giving a sense of dynamic movement to the statue.

  Excellent examples of this style of figure are the kouroi of Argos, dedicated at Delphi (circa 580 B.C.). Around 480 B.C., the last kouroi become ever more life-like, the weight is carried on the left leg, the right hip is lower, the buttocks and shoulders more relaxed, the head is not quite so rigid, and there is a hint of a smile. Female kore followed a similar evolution, particularly in the sculpting of their clothes which were rendered in an ever-more realistic and complex way. A more natural proportion of the figure was also established where the head became 1:7 with the body, irrespective of the actual size of the statue.

  By 500 B.C. Greek sculptors were finally breaking away from the rigid rules of Archaic conceptual art and beginning to re-produce what they actually observed in real life. In the Classical period, Greek sculptors would break off the shackles of convention and achieve what no-one else had ever before attempted. They created life-size and life-like sculpture which glorified the human and especially nude male form. Even more was achieved than this though. Marble turned out to be a wonderful medium for rendering what all sculptors strive for: that is to make the piece seem carved from the inside rather than chiseled from the outside.

  Figures become sensuous and appear frozen in action; it seems that only a second ago they were actually alive. Faces are given more expression and whole figures strike a particular mood. Clothes too become more subtle in their rendering and cling to the contours of the body in what has been described as ‘wind-blown’ or the ‘wet-look’. Quite simply, the sculptures no longer seemed to be sculptures but were figures instilled with life and verve. To see how such realism was achieved we must return again to the beginning and examine more closely the materials and tools at the disposal of the artist and the techniques employed to transform raw materials into art.

  Early Greek sculpture was most often in bronze and porous limestone, but whilst bronze seems never to have gone out of fashion, the stone of choice would become marble. The best was from Naxos - close-grained and sparkling, Parian (from Paros) - with a rougher grain and more translucent, and Pentelic (near Athens) - more opaque and which turned a soft honey color with age (due to its iron content). However, stone was chosen for its workability rather than its decoration as the majority of Greek sculpture was not polished but painted, often rather garishly for modern tastes.

  Marble was quarried using bow drills and wooden wedges soaked in water to break away workable blocks. Generally, larger figures were not produced from a single piece of marble, but important additions such as arms were sculpted separately and fixed to the main body with dowels. Using iron tools, the sculptor would work the block from all directions (perhaps with an eye on a small-scale model to guide proportions), first using a pointed tool to remove more substantial pieces of marble. Next, a combination of a five-claw chisel, flat chisels of various sizes, and small hand drills were used to sculpt the fine details.

  The surface of the stone was then finished off with an abrasive powder (usually emery from Naxos) but rarely polished. The statue was then attached to a plinth using a lead fixture or sometimes placed on a single column (e.g. the Naxian sphinx at Delphi, circa 560 B.C.). The finishing touches to statues were added using paint. Skin, hair, eyebrows, lips, and patterns on clothing were added in bright colors. Eyes were often inlaid using bone, crystal, or glass. Finally, additions in bronze might be added such as spears, swords, helmets, jewelry, and diadems, and some statues even had a small bronze disc (meniskoi) suspended over the head to prevent birds from defacing the figure.    

  The other favored material in Greek sculpture was bronze. Unfortunately, this material was always in demand for re-use in later periods, whereas broken marble is not much use to anyone, and so marble sculpture has better survived for posterity. Consequently, the quantity of surviving examples of bronze sculpture (no more than twelve) is not perhaps indicative of the fact that more bronze sculpture may well have been produced than in marble and the quality of the few surviving bronzes demonstrates the excellence we have lost. Very often at archaeological sites we may see rows of bare stone plinths, silent witnesses to art’s loss.

  The early solid bronze sculptures made way for larger pieces with a non-bronze core which was sometimes removed to leave a hollow figure. The most common production of bronze statues used the lost-wax technique. This involved making a core almost the size of the desired figure (or body part if not creating a whole figure) which was then coated in wax and the details sculpted. The whole was then covered in clay fixed to the core at certain points using rods. The wax was then melted out and molten bronze poured into the space once occupied by the wax. When set, the clay was removed and the surface finished off by scraping, fine engraving and polishing. Sometimes copper or silver additions were used for lips, nipples and teeth. Eyes were inlaid as in marble sculpture.

  Many statues are signed so that we know the names of the most successful artists who became famous in their own lifetimes. Naming a few, we may start with the most famous of all, Phidias, the artist who created the gigantic chryselephantine statues of Athena (circa 438 B.C.) and Zeus (circa 456 B.C.) which resided, respectively, in the Parthenon of Athens and the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. The latter sculpture was considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Polykleitos, who besides creating great sculpture such as the Doryphoros (Spearbearer), also wrote a treatise, the Kanon, on techniques of sculpture. Coryphoros emphasized the importance of correct proportion.

  Other important sculptors were Kresilas, who made the much copied portrait of Pericles (circa 425 B.C.), Praxiteles, whose Aphrodite (circa 340 B.C.) was the first full female nude, and Kallimachos, who is credited with creating the Corinthian capital and whose distinctive dancing figures were much copied in Roman times. Sculptors often found permanent employment in the great sanctuary sites and archaeology has revealed the workshop of Phidias at Olympia. Various broken clay moulds were found in the workshop and also the master’s own personal clay mug, inscribed ‘I belong to Phidias’. Another feature of sanctuary sites was the cleaners and polishers who maintained the shiny reddish-brass color of bronze figures as the Greeks did not appreciate the dark-green patina which occurs from weathering (and which surviving statues have gained).

  Greek sculpture is, however, not limited to standing figures. Portrait busts, relief panels, grave monuments, and objects in stone such as perirrhanteria (basins supported by three or four standing female figures) also tested the skills of the Greek sculptor. Another important branch of the art form was architectural sculpture, prevalent from the late 6th century B.C. on the pediments, friezes, and metopes of temples and treasury buildings. However, it is in figure sculpture that one may find some of the great masterpieces of Classical antiquity, and testimony to their class and popularity is that copies were very often made, particularly in the Roman period.

  Indeed, it is fortunate that the Romans loved Greek sculpture and copied it so widely because it is often these copies which survive rather than the Greek originals. The copies, however, present their own problems as they obviously lack the original master’s touch, may swap medium from bronze to marble, and even mix body parts, particularly heads. Although words will rarely ever do justice to the visual arts, we may list here a few examples of some of the most celebrated pieces of Greek sculpture. In bronze, three pieces stand out, all saved from the sea (a better custodian of fine bronzes than people have been): the Zeus or Poseidon of Artemesium and the two warriors of Riace (all three: 460-450 B.C.).

  The former could be Zeus (the posture is more common for that deity) or Poseidon and is a transitional piece between Archaic and Classical art as the figure is extremely life-like, but in fact the proportions are not exact (e.g. the limbs are extended). However, as Boardman eloquently describes, ‘(it) manages to be both vigorously threatening and static in its perfect balance’; the onlooker is left in no doubt at all that this is a great god. The Riace warriors are also magnificent with the added detail of finely sculpted hair and beards. More Classical in style, they are perfectly proportioned and their poise is rendered in such a way as to suggest that they may well step off of the plinth at any moment.  

  In marble, two standout pieces are the Diskobolos or discus thrower attributed to Myron (circa 450 B.C.) and the Nike of Paionios at Olympia (circa 420 B.C.). The discus thrower is one of the most copied statues from antiquity and it suggests powerful muscular motion caught for a split second, as in a photo. The piece is also interesting because it is carved in such a way (in a single plain) as to be seen from one viewpoint (like a relief carving with its background removed). The Nike is an excellent example of the ‘wet-look’ where the light material of the clothing is pressed against the contours of the body, and the figure seems semi-suspended in the air and only just to have landed her toes on the plinth.

  Greek sculpture then, broke free from the artistic conventions which had held sway for centuries across many civilizations, and instead of reproducing figures according to a prescribed formula, they were free to pursue the idealized form of the human body. Hard, lifeless material was somehow magically transformed into such intangible qualities as poise, mood, and grace to create some of the great masterpieces of world art and inspire and influence the artists who were to follow in Hellenistic and Roman times who would go on to produce more masterpieces such as the Venus de Milo.

  Further, the perfection in proportions of the human body achieved by Greek sculptors continues to inspire artists even today. The great Greek works are even consulted by 3D artists to create accurate virtual images and by sporting governing bodies who have compared athletes bodies with Greek sculpture to check abnormal muscle development achieved through the use of banned substances such as steroids. [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

  REVIEW:  The Artemision Bronze is a slighter larger than life sized statue recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision that represents either Zeus or Posiedon; the right hand either originally held a thunderbolt or a trident. The statue's creation dates to circa 460 B.C., before the development of the classical style in the later half of that century. However, the context in which it was found was much later, around the 2nd century B.C., presumably part of a sunken Roman ship's cargo. The statue was found in 1926 A.D. and then excavated in 1928 A.D.; it currently holds a prominent position within the National Archaeological museum at Athens. A cast of it can also be found at the cast gallery of Cambridge University's Museum of Classical Archaeology. [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

  REVIEW:  The Artemision Bronze (often called the "God from the Sea") is an ancient Greek sculpture that was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea. It represents either Zeus or Poseidon, is slightly over lifesize at 209 centimeters (6.7 feet), and would have held either a thunderbolt, if Zeus, or a trident if Poseidon. Typically however iconography of Ancient Greek pottery portrays Poseidon wielding the trident, when in combat, in more of a stabbing motion (similar to a fencing stance or an 'advance-lunge').

  Zeus on the other hand is typically depicted fighting with his arm raised, holding the thunderbolt overhead, in the same position as the Artemision Bronze (see 'Poseidon and the Giant Polybotes' an Attic Red Figure Stamnos attributed to the Trolios Painter, as well as 'Zeus hurling his lightning at Typhon' circa about 550 B.C. which is a black-figured Chalcidian hydria). The empty eye-sockets were originally inset, probably with bone, as well as the eyebrows (with silver), the lips, and the nipples (with copper). The sculptor is unknown. The Poseidon/Zeus is a highlight of the collections in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

  The debate over whether the statue represents Poseidon or Zeus hinges on the lost attribute held in the figure's right hand. As Caroline Houser writes, "Sometimes the Artemision protector is called 'Poseidon'. Those who would do so have been known to argue that the image must be that of the great sea god since the statue was found in the Mediterranean. But like other statues of totally different subjects, this one went into the sea simply because it was on board a ship that sank.

  Others cite the example of the Poseidonia coins, overlooking the much weightier evidence presented by the numerous surviving statuettes of Zeus launching his thunderbolt in a pose matching that of the Artemision figure." A major additional problem with that hypothesis is that a trident would obscure the face, especially from the profile view, which most scholars (even those who have supported an identification as Poseidon) have held to be the most, or even the only, important view.

  Iconographic parallels with coins and vase painting from the same time period show that this obscuring pose is extremely unlikely. However, the trident may have been unusually short, avoiding the problem. On the other hand, the statue is essentially a larger version of an extensive series of smaller solid bronze figurines extending back into the late 7th century, all of which strike the same pose and represent Zeus. On the basis of this and other iconographic parallels with vase-painting, most scholars presently think it is a Zeus. However, opinion remains divided.

  The god is caught at the moment of pause in the full potentiality of his coming movement, described by Carol Mattusch: "the figure has the potential for violence, is concentrating, poised to throw, but the action is just beginning, and we are left to contemplate the coming demonstration of strength." It is an original work of great strength in the Severe style that preceded the fifth-century classical style, dated to circa (about) 460 B.C. A comparison can be made with the Charioteer of Delphi, a roughly contemporaneous bronze.

  Discussions concerning its provenance have found champions for most of the Greek mainland centers technically capable of such a large-scale sculpture: Attica, where it is assdociated Kalamis (about 470-440 B.C.); Boeotia, Aegina, Sicyon or Argos. The sculpture has also been associated with Onatas or Myron and also Kritios and Nesiotes but there is no way of knowing for certain who created the work. The sculpture was first discovered in 1926 and further excavated in 1928 at the site of a shipwreck that occurred no earlier than the middle of the second century B.C.

  Unfortunately, not much is known about the wreck because exploration was abandoned when a diver died, in 1928, and was never resumed. Many such shipwrecks are of Roman date and were of vessels looting Greek art to Italy, but it is unclear whether the Artemision wreck is one of these. The Jockey of Artemision – a bronze statue of a racehorse and its jockey – was recovered from the same shipwreck and Seán Hemingway has suggested that the jockey and horse may have been looted from Corinth in 146 B.C. by the Roman general Mummius in the Achaean War, and was on its way to Pergamon when lost.

  The sculpture's head, now an icon of Hellenic culture, formed the subject of a Greek 500 drachma postage stamp (in use 1954-1977) and a 1000 drachma banknote (first issued in 1970, replaced in 1987). [Wikipedia].

  REVIEW:  Greek art and architecture had remarkably influenced the societal, cultural and artistic flowerings during the Renaissance period in Europe. And now one can see the clear inspiration behind those late medieval masterpieces, courtesy of statues that were discovered in Crete by archaeologists from the Greek Ministry of Culture. Found inside a Roman-era villa, the 21-inch high sculptures depict the Greek gods (and brother-sister twins) Artemis and Apollo, and date to the 1st or 2nd century A.D.

  The villa was located inside the city of Aptera, a formerly powerful ‘city-state’ from western Crete that was unfortunately destroyed by an earthquake in 7th century A.D. Now interestingly, the figurine of clothed Artemis (wearing a chiton or Greek tunic) was made from copper, while the antithetically nude Apollo was carved from marble. Additionally, the posture of Artemis – which seems to be ready to shoot a bow, was also constructed with an ornately designed heavy copper base. On the other hand, red traces of paint are still decipherable along the pedestal of Apollo’s figure.

  Judging from their visual impact, suffice it to say that the sculptures are still in an excellent state of preservation. Historians are specially impressed with the white material – that defines their respective eyes, still being sustained after 1,900 years or so. And even more fascinating is the conjecture put forth by the archaeologists that pertains to how these statues were probably not of local made. They might have been imported specifically to decorate the luxury Roman-era villa, thus mirroring our present-day ritzy scenarios. [Realm of History.Com].

  REVIEW:  The National Archaeological Museum of Athens can effortlessly lay claim to being one of the very greatest museums in the world. It can do that because it is literally jam-packed with most of the most famous art objects from ancient Greece, so much so, a first-time visit here is a strangely familiar experience. From the towering bronze Poseidon to the shimmering gold mask of Agamemnon, the antiquities on display here provide the staple images of ancient Greece; adorning guidebooks, calendars, and travel agents’ windows around the world.

  Familiar many of these works might be but the wow-factor is certainly no less for it. Wandering around the museum one has a constant urge to re-trace one’s steps for just one more glimpse of a stunning piece before moving on. As everything is arranged in chronological order, your tour of the museum gives you a perfect vision of the evolution of Greek art and there is even an Egyptian section as an added bonus if your senses have not already been blown away by everything on the ground floor.

  Located an easy 10 minute walk from Omonia metro stop, the museum is itself an impressive nod to classical architecture and is a listed building. Four massive statues of Greek gods peer down at you from the roof as if daring you not to be awestruck in the first few minutes of your visit. Once you’ve got your ticket, got rid of any large bags in the cloakroom (obligatory), and picked up your free map, you are immediately presented with the grinning mask of Agamemnon before you have even got through the first doorway.

  Don’t be drawn in here though by all that flashing gold but take a side-step to the room on your immediate right as here are the artifacts from the Cyclades which should come first in your odyssey through the Greek world. Pieces to look out for are the distinctive minimalist figures sculpted in marble, especially the two musical figures, one playing a harp and another an aulos (pipes), the earliest known depictions from the Greek world. Once you have finished with the Cyclades you will find yourself back where you started and that famous mask.

  After you make it around the first cabinet you will be presented by an astonishing array of Mycenaean gold. On the left, on the right, and in the middle are glass cases stuffed with masks, jewellery, weapons, and cups all shimmering in the museum spotlights. Then, when you finally pull yourself away and move along, you are presented with yet more cabinets left, right, and centre, again, gold flashing everywhere in every conceivable shape from rosettes to octopuses. It is right about now that you start thinking you have already got your money’s worth and how can the museum possibly top such splendor?

  Then you turn a corner and are presented with a massive stone kouros statue – another wow moment. The male figure presented in this way was the beginning of Greek art’s successful attempt to break the conventions of Egyptian statue figures. The arms are rigid by the sides and bring a tension to the upper body but the left leg steps forward slightly hinting at captured movement. As you walk through this section the figures become more and more life-like and dynamic as Greek sculptors became ever more daring in their efforts to render in stone the supple movement of human muscle.

  The best is yet to come though and the first hint is the two-metre high bronze statue of Poseidon (or maybe Zeus) rescued from the sea near Artemision. With his arms outstretched and legs braced apart he seems about to launch a trident or thunderbolt and he totally dominates the view down the hall. Bronze was the material of choice for Greek sculptors and two more outstanding examples are the Antikythera Youth (another find from the sea) and the child jockey riding a massive horse that is captured in full gallop, so much so, it seems about to take off from its pedestal at any second.

  In amongst all these star pieces there are other, equally fine, marble statues of Greek gods and heroes and one of the greatest collections of funeral sculpture anywhere. As in each room, all the pieces are well-presented and each has a small info panel in Greek and English. Given their own space and unconfined by glass or barriers, the visitor can certainly get up close and personal with these 2,500 year old pieces. The sculpture continues through the Hellenistic and into the Roman period with some very familiar Roman emperors, most famously the bronze statue of a youthful Augustus.

  This is the moment when probably most visitors are feeling a bit of art-fatigue so it might be worth a break in the coffee bar in the basement where you can also buy light snacks. There is a little outside courtyard too where you can sip a Greek coffee sitting amongst ancient sculptures not deemed top drawer enough to make it into the museum proper. It is well worth pushing on though as the museum has a stupendous pottery section. As you bought your ticket you probably caught a glimpse of the huge geometric vase from the Dipylon on your left and now is the time to take a closer look.

  Used for funeral purposes you can see at eye-level black stick figures in mourning and burying one of their own. The amphora is perhaps the most famous example of geometric pottery design and another one of those star pieces any museum curator in the world would sell their mother for. Then there are case after case of back-figure pottery in all shapes and sizes from miniature votive vessels to huge kraters used for mixing wine and water. Next comes red-figure pottery and both of these styles are one of the most important sources of information on Greek cultural practices and mythology.

  Three more must-see sections are those on Thera, Egypt, and the Stathatos Collection. The first, from the Bronze Age site on Santorini, has the super-famous boxing boys fresco and three sides of a room where the fresco shows scenes of spring; there are also pottery vessels and a bed miraculously preserved in the ash following the eruption of the volcano on the island. The Egyptian section is, understandably, more modest in scope than the rest of the museum but there are still enough sarcophagi, amulets, jewellery pieces, reconstruction models, and even a mummy or two, to be of interest.

  Finally, the Stathatos Collection has almost a thousand exhibits and is particularly big on jewelry, including examples from the Byzantine period. Having seen all those wonders you might fancy a keep-sake of your own and the museum shop next to the cafe has a good stock of Greek-inspired jewellery, museum-grade copies of sculpture and reliefs to suit all wallets (you can even buy life-size bronze statues, although quite how you’d get that one home…), replica coins, posters, mugs and all the other stuff anyone might want as a souvenir.

  There is a small collection of books on different aspects of the ancient Greeks (including plenty for children) and even some guides to other sites such as Dodona and Delphi, mostly in English or Greek. In summary, then, even if you have visited many of the great Greek sites like the Parthenon, Knossos, and Mycenae, you cannot miss this museum for the full picture of the ancient Greeks. It really is an embarrassment of riches and one is left feeling a little sorry for some of the other Greek cities which have lost out on displaying these treasures.

  It is one of those museums you really should visit twice, once with your camera and once again without or just so that, on your second visit, you can keep a lid on your excitement a little better each time you see a world-famous art object around the next corner. As said above, you can get close to the art but the down-side of that is large tour groups can easily clog up the rooms so it is best to go early morning or late in the day, or even better, out of season when you pretty much get entire rooms to yourself. A wonderful, wonderful museum. [Ancient History Encyclopedia].

REVIEW:  According to a report in The Guardian, pieces of at least seven different bronze sculptures have been recovered at the site of the Antikythera shipwreck, made famous by the discovery of the Antikythera mechanism in 1901. Brendan Foley of Lund University said the pieces were found among large boulders that may have tumbled over the wreckage during an earthquake in the fourth century A.D. with an underwater metal detector. Recovering any possible additional statue pieces will require moving the boulders, some of which weigh several tons, or cracking them open.

  The team also discovered a slab of red marble, a silver tankard, pieces of wood from the ship’s frame, and a human bone. A bronze disc about the size of the geared wheels in the Antikythera mechanism was also found this year. Preliminary X-rays of the object revealed an image of a bull, but no cogs, so it may have been a decorative item. Investigation of the deepwater site will continue next year. “We’re down in the hold of the ship now, so all the other things that would have been carried should be down there as well,” Foley said. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  Back in August of 2016, we talked about how archaeologists had discovered the ruins of a third century B.C. fortress constructed by Greeks of the Kingdom of Bosporus, just west of the Crimean city of Kerch. Now even more evidence of the ancient Greek connection to the Crimea of antiquity came to the fore when divers discovered part of a uniquely contrived terracotta statue (comprising its head).

  The fascinating find was made during underwater excavations at the Crimean bridge construction site near the Ak-Burun Cape, in proximity to Kerch. As far as we know, this unique artifact discovery is the first of its kind in the northern Black Sea area, such objects have never been found here before. In order to figure out what it was used for, when and where it was made, we will cooperate with the leading ancient Greek art experts and will also carry out a laboratory test of the clay.

  Historically the Greek terracotta sculptures were mass produced since the sixth century B.C. by using simple molds (through until about the fourth century B.C.), a technique that improved their cost-effectiveness, and as such made the objects ideal for religious offerings. However at the same time, most of these artifacts were limited to small figurines that rarely had heights of beyond 40 centimeters (16 inches). But in this case, the head is obviously part of a far bigger sculpture, thus attesting to the find’s uniqueness.

  As for the historical context of the discovered object, according to researchers from the Crimea Bridge information Center, the area near the Ak-Burun Cape was an important ancient hub for shipping and trading, with trade networks connecting the nearby Sea of Azov to distant Mediterranean. And considering the high volume of commerce in the region, some of the manufactured goods (including terracotta sculptures) turned out be defective.

  These items were unceremoniously discarded into the sea, which in turn aided in the formation of remarkable caches of terracotta objects over the course of two millennia. Finally coming to the scope of this discovery, divers are still manually excavating the underwater zone to avoid the risk of damaging potentially valuable ancient artifacts in the proximate area, with their project expected to continue until the end of summer. In the meantime, the salvaged historically-significant objects are being handed over to the Eastern Crimean Historical and Cultural Museum and Reserve. [Realm of History.Com]

REVIEW:  A stone torso of a woman from the third-century B.C. Pharos of Alexandria, a lighthouse that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, has been salvaged from the Mediterranean Sea. A number of sculptures in the sea around a fifteenth-century fortress built by the Mameluke sultan Qait Bey had been reported in a 1974 article in Nautical Archaeology, which suggested that the Pharos might have stood on the site.

  In 1993, when the Egyptian government began building a concrete breakwater around the base of the fortress to protect it from storm damage, there was an outcry from archaeologists who feared the operation might destroy any surviving remains of the Pharos and other nearby ancient buildings. The project was temporarily halted, and scholars from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities and the French Centre d'Études Alexandrines, led by Jean-Yves Empereur, began searching the waters around the fortress.

  According to Chris Scarre of Cambridge University, "Their finds confirm that one side of the Pharos collapsed into the sea, and that much material from this amazing structure still lies scattered on the seabed. Only now can we begin to appreciate the true extent and importance of the remains." In addition to the torso, Empereur's team has recovered some 30 other sculptures not from the Pharos, including sphinxes, granite columns and capitals, a fragment of an obelisk with a hieroglyphic inscription, and a headless statue of the pharaoh Ramesses II (circa about 1290-1224 B.C.).

  How and when the construction of the breakwater will resume has not yet been settled. The world's first lighthouse, the Pharos was built to warn sailors of the treacherous sandbars off Alexandria, one of the busiest ports of the ancient world. It consisted of a three-stage tower, decorated with sculptures of Greek deities and mythical creatures, atop which stood a lantern with a giant bonfire whose light may have been focused by mirrors, perhaps made of polished bronze, into a beam visible 35 miles out to sea.

  More than 300 feet tall, it was among the tallest man-made structures until the completion of the 1,050-foot Eiffel Tower in 1889. The lighthouse was still functioning when the Arabs conquered Alexandria in A.D. 642, but the lantern was damaged by an earthquake about 50 years later. The Pharos was hit by another earthquake in 1303, and by 1349 it was in ruins; in 1480 Qait Bey's fortress was built on the site. [Archaeological Institute of America].

REVIEW:  Since its discovery on the Quirinal Hill of Rome in 1885 near the ancient Baths of Constantine, the statue Boxer at Rest has astonished and delighted visitors to the Museo Nazionale Romano as a captivating masterpiece of ancient bronze sculpture. The archaeologist Rodolfo Lanciani, an eyewitness present at the statue's excavation, wrote:  "I have witnessed, in my long career in the active field of archaeology, many discoveries; I have experienced surprise after surprise; I have sometimes and most unexpectedly met with real masterpieces; but I have never felt such an extraordinary impression as the one created by the sight of this magnificent specimen of a semi-barbaric athlete, coming slowly out of the ground, as if awakening from a long repose after his gallant fights."

  Indeed, in a photograph taken at the time of its discovery, the Boxer at Rest looks like he was just waiting to be found. Thousands of sculptures had been recovered from excavations in Rome before the Boxer at Rest came to light. Wherever a new building project was undertaken in the eternal city some new remnant of antiquity was inevitably revealed. Giovanni Panini's painting Ancient Rome gives a sense of the riches that were already known by the middle of the eighteenth century. More sculptures were found each year, but nothing like the Boxer at Rest had ever appeared. In the more than 125 years since, nothing quite like it has ever been discovered.

  The statue was displayed for many years in the Rotunda of the Baths of Diocletian together with another great Hellenistic bronze of a heroic standing nude man, which was unearthed in the same general vicinity as the Boxer at Rest. In 2005, it was moved into a new display in the Palazzo Massimo and it has only rarely traveled. For the first time, the Boxer at Rest has come to the United States and is on view in the Greek and Roman Galleries of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in celebration of 2013 – Year of Italian Culture in the United States.

  The statue portrays a boxer seated with his arms resting on his knees, his head turned to the right and slightly raised with mouth open. The figure is naked except for his boxing gloves, which are of an ancient Greek type with strips of leather attached to a ring around the knuckles and fitted with woolen padding, and the infibulation of his penis by tying up the foreskin, which was both for protection and an element of decorum.The boxer is represented just after a match. His muscular body and full beard are those of a mature athlete, and his thick neck, lanky legs, and long arms are well suited to the sport.

  His face exhibits bruises and cuts. His lips are sunken as though his teeth have been pushed in or knocked out. His broken nose and cauliflower ears are common conditions of boxers, probably the result of previous fights, but the way he is breathing through his mouth and the bloody cuts to his ears and face make clear the damage inflicted by his most recent opponent. The muscles of his arms and legs are tense as though, despite the exhaustion of competition, he is ready to spring up and face the next combatant. The quick turn of his head is emphasized by drops of blood—represented by inlaid copper—that appear to have just fallen from his face onto his right thigh and arm.

  Similarly realistic impressions occur in other Hellenistic bronze sculptures such as the Horse and Jockey from Artemision in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Like the Boxer at Rest, this large-scale sculptural group was most likely a monument to athletic victory, perhaps representing the moment when the jockey, his horse still in mid-gallop, turns to look back at competitors as he crosses the finish line. The sculpture also makes use of inlays to great effect, most notably the brand in the form of a winged Nike bearing a victory wreath on the horse's right rear haunch.

  The Nike brand would have been of a contrasting metal such as gold, silver, or even copper to give the appearance of seared flesh. The Metropolitan's collection includes two other Hellenistic bronzes portraying momentary poses. An Early Hellenistic bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer depicts a twirling dancer whose left foot is raised in mid step. The statuette, like the Boxer at Rest, is a work of the highest quality in a very realistic style. In the Metropolitan's masterful bronze statue of Sleeping Eros, probably a Hellenistic work of the 3rd or 2nd century B.C., the artist has created a momentary pose of the god of love asleep in the midst of his labors.

  The way that his bow (now missing) has fallen from his open right hand and his open quiver (of which only the feather of one arrow is still preserved, by his head) are telling details that make clear the god has just nodded off. The delicate rendering of the child's doughy flesh and the careful treatment of his wings, which are tucked in like a sleeping bird's, enhance the statue's tender realism. The pose and powerful physique of the Boxer at Rest have been aptly compared to Goya's Giant. While the great Spanish realist painter could not have known the statue, Goya seems to be drawing on the same primal energy in his portrait. It is not known whether the Boxer at Rest was originally part of a larger group or was intended as a solitary work.

  Large-scale sculptural groups were certainly undertaken in the Hellenistic period but it is entirely possible that the statue functioned on its own, with the turn of his head only implying another or other figures in the scene such as the approach of his next opponent. His pose and the treatment of his beard recall two statues of Herakles, the great mythical strong man of antiquity, attributed to the bronze sculptor Lysippos, one of the most innovative masters of the fourth century B.C. and court sculptor of Alexander the Great.  The assimilation of a realistic portrayal of a boxer after a match with a famous mythic hero at rest after his labors makes it difficult to know if a real or mythical figure is portrayed in the Boxer at Rest.

  Still, it is more likely that a real boxer is commemorated and, like Herakles, who successfully completed one impossible labor after another, there is no doubt that he will succeed again despite his battered state. Like most Hellenistic sculptures not fixed to a specific historical date, the Boxer at Rest is difficult to date on stylistic grounds alone, given that sculptors utilized a variety of styles in the Hellenistic period (323–31 B.C.). Scholars have placed the statue anywhere from the late fourth century B.C., noting its stylistic similarities to statues attributed to Lysippos and other compositional features, to the middle of the first century B.C., where it is compared to other powerful classicizing works such as the Belvedere Torso in the Vatican Museum.

  Visitors to the Museum can compare a fine fragmentary Roman adaptation of a Lyssipan seated Herakles with the Boxer at Rest. While the parallels are far from exact, one can see how there were many variations on the theme of the muscular hero at rest. The current broad but early dating of the statue from the late fourth to the second century B.C. follows the assessment of Rita Paris, who is the author of the brochure accompanying the exhibition and the Director of the Museo Nazionale Romano - Palazzo Massimo alle Terme.

  The statue was hollow cast by means of the indirect lost wax method. As was characteristic in antiquity, the sculpture was made in several different sections that were then welded together: head, body, genitals, arms above the gloves, forearms, left leg, and the middle toes. The top of the head was restored in antiquity. Repairs to bronze statues must have been relatively common, although not very many major ancient restorations are preserved today. The bronze statue of Sleeping Eros in the Metropolitan's collection has a large restored section of drapery between the legs, and, like the Boxer at Rest, which clearly had a long history in antiquity, the repair may have been done long after the statue was first created.

  Although the inset eyes of the Boxer at Rest are missing, they would have been convincingly rendered, like a pair in the Metropolitan's collection. The statue is remarkable for its extensive use of copper inlays, especially for the wounds to the boxer's head and the drips of blood on the right thigh and arm, as well as the lips, nipples, and the straps and stitching of the boxing gloves. Of particular note is the bruise under the right eye, which was cast with a different alloy to give it a darker color. Extensive cold working of the statue, especially the hair, was done as part of the finishing process.

  The stone base is modern but it is probably a close approximation of what the ancient base looked like. Originally, the use of stone would have added to the realistic effect so powerfully rendered in the bronze. Very few original Greek bronze statues have been preserved from antiquity. In the center of the Jaharis gallery, where the Boxer at Rest is now displayed, can be seen fine Roman copies of famous Greek statues of the Classical period. A particularly good example is the Diadoumenos, or fillet binder, a work attributed to Polykleitos, one of the foremost bronze sculptors of the fifth century B.C. Like the Boxer at Rest, the statue represents an athlete at the top of his game and was probably commissioned as a victor monument.

  While the Metropolitan's marble copy, made many centuries later than the original of about 430 B.C., offers a good sense of the original composition and its stylistic features, it lacks the vitality that Polykleitos's masterpiece surely had. Paul Zanker has noted that early scholars, including Rodolfo Lanciani, quoted at the beginning of this article, found the Boxer at Rest to contradict "the noble simplicity and quiet grandeur" of Classical Greek art so admired by Joachim Wincklemann and others, which was originally one of the reasons for dating it late in the Hellenistic period.

  The placement of the Boxer at Rest, now universally recognized as a masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture, in proximity to the Roman copies displayed at the Met allows the visitor to contemplate anew the phenomenon of posthumous copies in Greco-Roman sculpture and to sense the magnitude of what has been lost in even faithful reproductions of much earlier masterpieces. Boxing was an ancient and revered sport in antiquity. Practiced already in the Bronze Age, it is recorded in the eighth century B.C. among the athletic contests performed during the funeral games of Patrokles in the 23rd book of Homer's Iliad.

  It was first introduced into the Olympic games in 688 B.C. and became an integral competition at all of the major panhellenic sanctuaries where athletic events were held in connection with religious festivities. Professional boxers trained to compete in local and panhellenic competitions, and would undertake a circuit of the games, sometimes achieving legendary status. An Archaic Athenian black-figure vase in the Metropolitan's collection illustrates a rare scene of two boxers training to the accompaniment of music played from a double aulos (flute), likely to hone their rhythm and reflexes.   The prizes at the games differed from place to place. In the panhellenic games, athletes were awarded wreaths: wild olive at Olympia, laurel at Delphi, pine at Isthmia, and wild celery at Nemea. In commemoration of their accomplishments, athletic victors were allowed to erect statues of themselves in the sanctuary precincts or in their home towns. One of the few large-scale bronze portraits of a boxer to survive other than the Boxer at Rest is the head of a boxer from the sanctuary of Zeus at Olympia. The flattened nose, battered face and cauliflower ears make clear a veteran pugilist is represented, and the olive wreath on his head identifies him as a victor at the Olympic games.

  It has been suggested that he may represent Satyros, son of Lycanax, who was known to have won the boxing competition of the Nemean games five times, twice in the Pythian games at Delphi and twice at Olympia. The Greek travel writer Pausanias saw his bronze statue, a work of the Athenian sculptor Silanion, in the sanctuary at Olympia in the second century A.D. At Athens, victors received olive oil in large amphorai decorated with an image of the goddess Athena shown striding between two columns with the inscription "one of the prizes from Athens" on one side and an image of the event on the other.

  In the second quarter of the fourth century B.C., the Panathenaic games had three categories of boxing events: for boys of twelve to sixteen years of age; youths, or ephebes; and adult men. An Athenian inscription records that the first prize for the boy's boxing event was 30 amphorai and for the youths 40 amphorai, each filled with some 38 liters of olive oil harvested from the sacred groves of the goddess. Bronze vessels and tripod stands were other popular prizes. A Classical bronze hydria in the Met's collection is inscribed on the rim as a prize from the games of Hera at Argos.

  So popular was boxing among ancient Greek nobility, who valued it as a form of military training, that swollen ears became a mark of honor. The rules for ancient Greek boxing were different than they are today. A boxer had to face one opponent after another, typically without significant pauses, and blows were dealt primarily to the head and face. The sport was distinguished from another event called the pankration, which was a kind of no-holds barred combination of boxing, wrestling, and kick-boxing in which only the gouging of eyes was not allowed.

  Originally, the gloves used to protect competitors' hands were simple leather straps that covered the forearms. In the fourth century B.C. more complex gloves, like those on the Boxer at Rest, featured a rigid ring with ox-hide straps around the fingers and fur trim so that the athlete could wipe the sweat and blood from his brow. Later on, during the Roman Imperial period, boxing gloves worn by gladiators developed into deadly weapons with sharp metal or broken glass points—a single well-placed blow from one of these caesti could kill an opponent.

  The amazing preservation of the Boxer at Rest for centuries after its creation is a miracle in itself and a testament to the longstanding appreciation of Greek art and culture by the ancient Romans. However, there may have been a reason for the statue's safeguarding beyond its outstanding artistic qualities. Parts of the toes and fingers of the Boxer at Rest are worn from frequent touching in antiquity. It has been suggested that the statue was attributed healing powers, as was known to have occurred with other statues of famous athletes.

  An Early Imperial vitreous-paste ring stone appears to represent the same statue of a boxer sitting on a rock and may have been a talisman for the ring's owner. It is perhaps thanks to its popular veneration that the bronze statue Boxer at Rest was protected so carefully in late antiquity when the Baths of Constantine were destroyed. Imagining the placement of this magnificent statue in a public setting such as the Baths of Constantine allows us a glimpse of one of the many treasures that made Rome the greatest city of the ancient world.

  It is fitting that the sculpture is now displayed in the Jaharis Gallery, which is a grand Beaux-Arts space designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White meant to evoke the monumental public baths of ancient Rome. Do not miss the chance to see this ancient masterpiece during its brief visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York Metropolitan Museum].

REVIEW:  Leave your preconceived notions of ancient art at home. A groundbreaking exhibition at Harvard University's Arthur M. Sackler Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts, shows how marble statues actually looked in antiquity: covered from head to toe in vibrant paint. Based on 25 years of research by Vinzenz Brinkmann, formerly a curator at the Glyptothek Museum in Germany, "Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity" features more than 20 full-size color reconstructions of Greek and Roman works, alongside 35 original statues and reliefs.

  "The exhibition corrects a popular misconception," says Susanne Ebbinghaus, curator of ancient art at the Sackler, who points out that people generally associate classical art with white marble sculpture. "What you would have seen when you walked through an ancient city, cemetery, or sanctuary," she explains, "would have been colorful sculpture: painted marble, colorful bronze, gold and ivory cult images. It completely changes our picture of the ancient world." 

  Walking through the galleries, I pause in front of a color reconstruction of a marble portrait of the Roman emperor Caligula, who ascended the throne in a.d. 37 at age 25, and ruled until his assassination four years later. I'm used to seeing him in "classic white": his pupil-less eyes set against a ghostly pallor, frozen in a regal gaze. But color makes me focus on different facial features, such as the mop of thick, brown hair that frames his fleshy face, which is accented by bright hazel eyes and soft rosy lips.

  His cheeks are shaded in areas that bring out a plumpness, revealing his youth. I feel as if the deceased despot from my dry history books was actually once young, handsome, and alive. Most scholars haven't paid much attention to the light traces of pigment that remained on the surface of marble statues. One reason is that ancient artists used mineral-based paints with organic binding media that disintegrated over time. Also, as statues were later collected and displayed, paint remnants were likely lost during cleaning.

  And even after extensive visual and scientific analysis of the original sculptures, Ebbinghaus admits, scholars still don't know if the paint was applied in one or two coats, how finely the pigments were ground, or exactly which binding medium would have been used in each case--all elements that would affect the appearance of a finished piece. Generally, though, the color reconstructions in the exhibition "truly look closer to ancient sculpture than just the plain white marble," she says.

  Color makes us rethink what ancient artists were actually trying to achieve, Ebbinghaus notes. "To me," she says, "it was a revelation." "Gods in Color" is a traveling exhibition, previously shown throughout Europe. It is on view at the Sackler, the first U.S. venue, through January 20. Some pieces will be displayed at the Getty Villa in Malibu in an exhibition titled "The Color of Life" (March 6-June 23, 2008).  [Archaeological Institute of America].

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  • Title: The Horse and Jockey from Artemision
  • Subtitle: Bronze Equestrian Monument from the Hellenistic Pe
  • Author: Sean Hemingway

PicClick Insights - Sculpture en bronze Artemision cheval de course et jockey Euboie Grèce naufrage hellénique PicClick Exclusif

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