Giacobbe Giusti, The Nimrud Jewelry
Necklace from a tomb at the ancient city of Nimrud, in Iraq.
Nimrud was the capital of Ashurnasirpal II, an Assyrian king of the 9th century BC
Nimrud: ugal or headdress worn by the Queen
Nimrud: gold bracelets
Monthly Archives: August 2015
Giacobbe Giusti, Defining beauty the body in ancient Greek art
Giacobbe Giusti, Defining beauty the body in ancient Greek art
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Marble statue of a naked Aphrodite crouching at her bath, also known as Lely’s Venus. Roman copy of a Greek original, 2nd century AD. Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015.
26 March – 5 July 2015
Defining beauty: the Body in Ancient Greek Art at the British Museum gives visitors quite an eyeful
by Hugh Montgomery 
From fitness magazines to dating apps, you don’t have to look far for evidence of our modern society’s obsession with the body beautiful. But for all the think-piece chatter, this veneration of the toned and chiselled is hardlya 21st-century phenomenon: get a load of those Ancient Greeks, as you can at the British Museum’s spring blockbuster exhibition Defining Beauty.
Bringing together around 150 pieces from the Museum’s own collections and beyond, it will show how, from the fifth century BC on, Greek sculptors revolutionised the representation of the human form. Channelling the humanism that was at the core of the new Athenian democracy – the idea, as Protagoras said, that “man was the measure of all things” – they sought to celebrate the human form by depicting it in a radically naturalistic but idealised state.
And in doing so, lost the clothes, of course: the Greeks’ attitude towards naked male flesh, at least, was “exceptional and unique” within the ancient world, as curator Ian Jenkins points out. Rather than maintain the traditional associations of nakedness with shame and vulnerability, they re-conceived it as heroic. “When a young man took off his clothes in the gymnasium, he wore the uniform of the righteous,” says Jenkins.
Indeed, if today’s body-beautiful culture seems predicated on envy and aspiration, the exhibition’s marble, bronze and terracotta specimens will leave visitors in rather more sublime a state, hopes Jenkins. “The Greeks placed man at the centre [of their world] and elevated him to be uniquely self-determining … and the body is the illustration of that conviction … I want [people] to come out feeling more intelligent and beautiful than when they went in,” he says.
And if that’s not incentive enough, then here, as an appetite-whetter, are six of Jenkins’s pulchritudinous highlights:
1) Figure of a River God, (circa 438-432BC) – one of the Parthenon Sculptures or ‘Elgin Marbles’
Figure of a river god, one of the ‘Elgin Marbles’ (British Museum)
I have put this first among the six, because it is a Greek original; many of the others are Roman copies. It comes from the west pediment of the Parthenon, and is thought to represent the river Ilissos. To get a figure to fit the space of a pediment’s raking cornice, you have to make it miniature or have it recline, and once you’ve got the figure to lie, it becomes a good subject for representing water, as it “flows” into the corner. The piece has about it that shifting indefinable quality of breathing vitality; cold marble is made lissom and languid by a process of almost magical alchemy and turned into warm flesh and flowing drapery, which is then converted again into water.
2) Bronze statuette of Zeus (1st-2nd century AD)
A bronze statuette of Zeus (British Museum)
This representation of the great Lord Olympus, some 20cm high, is an extraordinary piece: macho, commanding, erotically inspiring, all the things that the male body can be. It came into the British Museum collection in the mid 19th century having been in the collection of Dominique Vivant Denon, the first director of the Louvre. It is the quality of the piece that is so remarkable: as a French commentator said at the end of the 19th century, one could imagine in this statue that it were a colossus: it has such a major impact on the eye and when you look at it close up, it looks as though the detail could only be achieved on something of a much greater scale.
3) Aphrodite crouching at her bath, aka Lely’s Venus (2nd century AD)
‘Lely’s Venus’ a Roman copy of the lost Greek original (Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2015)
She’s a truly exceptional piece of carving and composition who represents the danger of getting too close to goddesses: the idea is that you approach her from behind and you see her broad flat back, her head looking forcefully down over her right shoulder, and her right arm reaching over her left shoulder and seeming to play with our attention and beckon us to move closer. So we do first a quarter turn, and then a three-quarter turn, but finally our expectations are denied because we do not get an intimate view of her sexual parts and instead what we get is an intimidating stare. A piece that seems at first welcoming is in fact, very threatening.
4) Marble statue of a boy athlete, aka the Westmacott Athlete (1st century AD)
The ‘Westmacott Athlete’ (British Museum)
This representation of a young athlete fulfils an idea of the beautiful male athletic body that is much spoken of in texts of the time. He is the epitome of youth: standing firm but looking away from us demurely. This is a copy of a lost Greek original from around the time of Socrates, and I like to think of him as from Plato’s Charmides, a dialogue in which a beautiful boy is admired and interrogated by Socrates, who determines that he is not only beautiful but morally sound: he is drawn even more to him because he demonstrates “charis” or grace. You can also see here how the sexuality of the athletic nude is reduced by the downsizing of the genitals – and there’s no thrusting as you find with the goal-scoring footballers of today.
5) Statuette of a veiled and masked dancer, aka the Baker Dancer (3rd-2nd century BC)
‘The Baker Dancer’ (British Museum)
This is an object which I first fell in love with when I went to The Met in New York aged 24. It’s a virtuoso, almost dazzling display of modelling, first of all in clay and then cast in bronze, of a female dancer using her drapery to suggest the body beneath, which she’s clearly very proud of. It’s a great example of the use of drapery as sexual innuendo by sculptors in a society where the depiction of the female body was more problematic than the male.
6) The Belvedere Torso (1st century BC to 1st century AD)
The ‘Belvedere Torso’ (British Museum)
It is a privilege to have this on loan from the Vatican; it’s the first time it has travelled to the UK. This piece was much praised by Michelangelo, and inspired The Creation of Adam; when asked by the Pope to restore it, he refused on the grounds it was an inimitable work of art which, though broken, possessed the ideal principles of Greek sculpture. I think it’s probably a representation of Hercules, after his labours, awaiting divinity, though there are a few different theories – there is a suggestion that he’s Ajax – and what’s so remarkable about it is the articulation of the different planes of the body; it’s like a cubist painting by Picasso.
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/defining-beauty-the-body-in-ancient-greek-art-at-the-british-museum-gives-visitors-quite-an-eyeful-10123257.html
http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/past_exhibitions/2015/defining_beauty.aspx?fromShortUrl
http://www.giacobbegiusti.com
Giacobbe Giusti, Bronze Sculpture Discovered in Georgia Goes on Display in Los Angeles
Giacobbe Giusti, Bronze Sculpture Discovered in Georgia Goes on Display in Los Angeles
An ancient statue dating back to the Bronze Age and discovered in Georgia goes on a display among the ancient world’s masterpieces in Los Angeles.
After the long term collaboration of the Georgian National Museum and J. Paul Getty Museum unidentified bronze statue named Torso of a Youth dated 2nd – 1st century BC, discovered in Vani settlement, wester Georgia were available to go on a display at the exhibition in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
A major exhibition named Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World was open at the Los Angeles Getty Museum on July 28 and will last until November 1.
Before moving to Los Angeles, following exhibition was presented at the Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and after Getty Museum, exposition will move to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Other pieces which are exhibited at the Los Angeles Getty Museum are from world’s leading ancient museums, such are the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the Musйe du Louvre in Paris, and the Vatican Museums.
The exhibition in Los Angeles is organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, with the participation of the Tuscany’s directorate general for archaeology and it represents one of the largest expositions of this kind.
National Museum of Georgia is temporary housing of the statue, but as soon as Otar Lordkipanidze Vani Museum-Reserve will finish its large scale reconstruction works in 2016 the bronze torso of a youth will be returned at the original place.
Georgian National Museum currently takes part in one of the most important international cultural event. From 14 March to 21 June 2015, Palazzo Strozzi in Florence is hosting a major exhibition entitled “Power and Pathos”. Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, devised and produced in conjunction with the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana, Tuscany’s directorate general for archaeology. The exhibition showcases a host of outstanding examples of bronze sculpture to tell the story of the spectacular artistic developments of the Hellenistic era (4th to 1st centuries BCE).
The exhibition hosts some of the most important masterpieces of the ancient world from many of the world’s leading archaeological museums including the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Galleria degli Uffizi and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Florence, the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, the Vatican Museums and the Georgian National Museum, which represented bronze torso of a youth dated 2nd – 1st century BC, discovered in Vani settlement (Georgia).
Participation at the exhibition is due to the long term collaboration of Georgian National Museum and J. Paul Getty Museum. After the exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, all exponents will be showcased at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 2016.
As soon as Georgian National Museum Otar Lordkipanidze Vani Museum-Reserve will finish its large scale reconstructive works, bronze torso of a youth will be returned at the original place.
http://museum.ge/index.php?lang_id=ENG&sec_id=72&info_id=13315
Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan Warrior, known as Marte of Todi
Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan Warrior, known as Marte of Todi
It is a bronze statue, discovered in 1835, buried next to the walls of the Convent of Montesanto, very close to the Umbrian town of Todi, in the province of Perugia. The area was an ancient Etruscan settlement.
Like many Etruscan sculpture, we don’t know the author of the work. From the dedicatory inscription it is known that it was donated to the temple dedicated to Mars (god greek-Etruscan) by National Etruscan Tahal Trutitis.
The statue was found buried under slabs of travertine, and was probably achieved by a sunbeam, which revealed the presence.
It is currently displaied at the Vatican Museums in Rome (exactly in the Gregorian Etruscan Museum). The iron lance that no longer exists and the cup that the warrior wore originally exhibited separately.
http://www.giacobbegiusti.com
Giacobbe Giusti, TERRANTICA. Faces, Myths and Images of the Earth in the Ancient World
Giacobbe Giusti, TERRANTICA. Faces, Myths and Images of the Earth in the Ancient World
Terrantica, madre, 2800 aC,
Atene Museo dell’Arte Cicladica, Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris Foundation
Colosseo, 5 agosto – 30 settembre 2015
Since April 23, 2015 until October 11, 2015 the coliseum will host in its splendid arches an exhibition dedicated to the worship of the earth, from prehistory to the Roman Empire: Terrantica. Halfway between the human and the divine, the exhibition offers an insight on the strength of Mother Earth, told his visitors through 75 works, including ancient artifacts (statues, vases, reliefs), and contemporary photographs with the theme antiquity, the sacredness of the magic of the Earth. – See more at: http://www.colosseo-roma.com/events/colosseum/exhibition-terrantica-colosseum/en#sthash.NG4pIzTY.dpuf
http://www.colosseo-roma.com/events/colosseum/exhibition-terrantica-colosseum/en
http://segnalazioni.blogspot.it/2015/05/la-rassegna-della-stampa-di-oggi-sara_10.html
Giacobbe Giusti, The Painted Garden of the Villa of Livia
Giacobbe Giusti, The Painted Garden of the Villa of Livia
This lush painted garden covered the walls of a semi-subterranean chamber, probably a cool triclinium (dining room) for summer banquets, in the suburban Villa of Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus.
This Second style fresco, the most ancient example of continuous garden painting (30 – 20 BCE), presents a variety of plants and birds rendered in a naturalistic way.
Many are the botanical species identified: in the foreground, the umbrella pine, the oak, the red fir; beyond a marble enclosure grow apple quinces, pomegranates, myrtles, oleanders, date palms, strawberry trees, laurels, viburnums, holm oaks, box trees, cypresses, ivy and acanthus.
In the meadow under the trees bloom roses, poppies, chrysanthemums and chamomile, while along the footpaths in the foreground, ferns alternate with violets and irises.
Giacobbe Giusti, Mural from the triclinium of the Villa of Livia
Giacobbe Giusti, mural from the triclinium of the Villa of Livia at Prima Porta Roman 1st century CE
Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient bronze sculptures comes to Getty Museum
Giacobbe Giusti, Ancient bronze sculptures comes to Getty Museum
The Pompeii Apollo”
Kenneth Lapatin, associate curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum, gestures toward a sculpture which is part of the “Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of Hellenistic World” exhibit in Los Angeles, Monday, July 27, 2015. (AP / Nick Ut)
John Rogers, The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, July 28, 2015 9:35AM EDT
Published Tuesday, July 28, 2015 9:35AM EDT
LOS ANGELES — It’s almost as if the dozens of exquisitely detailed, often perfectly intact bronze sculptures on display at the J. Paul Getty Museum disappeared into an ancient witness-protection program — and decided to stay there for thousands of years.
“Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World,” which opened at the museum Tuesday, brings together more than 50 bronzes from the Hellenistic period that extended from about 323 to 31 B.C.
Many of them, like the life-size figure of an exhausted boxer, his hands still bandaged from a match, brow cut and bruised, are stunning in their detail. So is the “The Medici Riccardi Horse,” a horse’s head complete with flaring nostrils and a detailed mane. “Sleeping Eros” shows an infant sprawled out sound asleep on a pedestal. One arm is draped across the child’s chest, his tousled hair in gentle repose.
Perhaps even more stunning, however, is the fact that any of these things survived.
Thousands of such beautifully detailed bronzes were created during the Hellenistic Age. Larger works were assembled piece-by-piece and welded together by artisans working in almost assembly line fashion and displayed in both public places and the homes of the well to do.
But most, say the exhibition’s co-curators, Kenneth Lapatin and Jens Daehner, were eventually melted down and turned into something else like coins.
“We know Lysippos made 1,500 bronzes in his lifetime, but not one survives,” Lapatin said of the artist said to be Alexander the Great’s favourite sculptor. “They’ve all been melted down.”
To this day, roads, fields and other public places across Greece and much of the rest of the Mediterranean are dotted with empty stone bases where bronze statues once stood, added Daehner during a walk-through of the stunning, hilltop museum ahead of the exhibition’s opening.
Which is why you rarely see more than one or two when you visit most any museum, said J. Paul Getty Director Timothy Potts.
The nearly 60 that will be on display at the J. Paul Getty until Nov. 1 are believed to represent the largest such collection ever assembled. They have been contributed by 32 lenders from 14 countries on four continents.
“Many of these are national treasures,” Potts said. “They are the greatest works of ancient art that these nations possess. So it’s been an extraordinary act of generosity for them to be lent to us.”
Many are completely intact, so much so that several still have their eyes, made of tin and glass. The result, they can stare right back in eerie fashion at museum visitors who go to check them out.
That they survived was in most cases the result of simple good fortune on their part, if not their owners’.
“It’s only through shipwrecks, through being buried in the foundations of buildings, being buried by a volcano at Pompeii or landslides that most of these pieces have survived,” said Lapatin.
“Herm of Dionysus,” for example, was believed to have been commissioned by a wealthy Roman homeowner. The detailed work of a bearded man with hat and animated eyes was found in a shipwreck off the coast of Tunisia in 1907.
The sculpture of an athlete raising an arm in victory was uncovered in the Adriatic Sea by Italian fishermen in the 1960s.
“The Pompeii Apollo” was discovered in 1977 in the dining room of a house in Pompeii that had been buried by the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D.
It is believed to have been used, in a very ungodlike fashion, to hold the room’s lights. That’s something that inspired Lapatin to refer to it as the equivalent of a modern-day lawn jockey.
The exhibition featuring it and the other pieces was organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi in Florence and the National Gallery of Art in Washington. It opened at the Palazzo Strozzi earlier this year. After it leaves the Getty, will go on display Dec. 6 at the National Gallery of Art.
It will also be the subject of study when the 19th International Congress on Ancient Bronzes convenes in Los Angeles in October.
http://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/ancient-bronze-sculptures-comes-to-l-a-s-getty-museum-1.2490939
Giacobbe Giusti, a new world 