Monday, December 14, 2015

Ancient artifacts at the Metropolitan Museum

Bronze Statuette
Veiled and masked dancer
3rd-2nd century BC
Hellenistic Alexandria
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze Statuette
Veiled and masked dancer
 3rd-2nd century BC
Hellenistic Alexandria
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze Statuette
Veiled and masked dancer
3rd-2nd century BC
Hellenistic Alexandria
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze Statuette
Veiled and masked dancer
3rd-2nd century BC
Hellenistic Alexandria
Metropolitan Museum of Art

The bronze dancer above (seen from four different sides) preserves in its way an ephemeral performance with expressive draperies that took place in Alexandria (or that did not take place) more than two thousand years ago. Isadora Duncan fancied that she could revive exactly this ancient allure in the early 20th century by means of her own fluid draperies and inspired limbs.

Below, Dionysos pursues his eternal bride Ariadne around the sides of the deep two-handled drinking-cup or skyphos. Again, there are views of the one object from four different sides. The free-form flourishes under the handles are endowed with the same share of weight and substance as the two mythological figures, pursuer and pursued, in their trance of static motion on the unobstructed sides.

Terracotta red-figure Skyphos
Dionysos pursues Ariadne
ca. 470 BC
Attic Greece
 Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta red-figure Skyphos
Dionysos pursues Ariadne
ca. 470 BC
Attic Greece
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta red-figure Sykphos
Dionysos pursues Ariadne
ca. 470 BC
Attic Greece
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta red-figure Skyphos
Dionysos pursues Ariadne
ca. 470 BC
Attic Greece
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze Cista 
Winged genii carrying the body of a dead soldier
ca. 350-325 BC

from the necropolis at Praeneste near Rome
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bronze Cista
Winged genii carrying the body of a dead soldier
ca. 350-325 BC
from the necropolis at Praeneste near Rome
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Etruscan and Roman culture produced bronze cista, cylindrical lidded containers used ceremonially in burials to accompany the dead and serve them in the underworld. The cista above, now in the Metropolitan Museum, is engraved over its entire surface with scenes from the Trojan War.

Below, a terracotta hydria or water jar from one of the Greek colonies that spread across Southern Italy in the centuries before the Romans imposed their own hegemony there. The white structure painted on the front of the vesel represents a naiskos or grave shrine resembling a small house. The figures of living mourners are portrayed at the sides in the usual red color. Figures of dead people are whitewashed, like the tomb itself.

Terracotta red-figure Hydria
Tomb scene with naiskos
ca. 330-300 BC
Greek culture in South Italy
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta red-figure Hydria
Tomb scene with naiskos
ca. 330-300 BC
Greek culture in South Italy
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta red-figure Hydria
Tomb scene with naiskos
ca. 330-300 BC
Greek culture in South Italy
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Terracotta red-figure Hydria
Tomb scene with naiskos
ca. 330-300 BC
Greek culture in South Italy
Metropolitan Museum of Art

I am grateful to the Metropolitan Museum of Art for the fine reproductions.