Giacobbe Giusti, Boy with Thorn

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Boy with Thorn

Giacobbe Giusti, Boy with Thorn

Lo Spinario (Palazzo dei Conservatori, Musei Capitolini).

Boy with Thorn, also called Fedele (Fedelino) or Spinario, is a Greco-Roman Hellenistic bronze sculpture of a boy withdrawing a thorn from the sole of his foot, now in the Palazzo dei Conservatori, Rome. A Roman marble of this subject from the Medici collections is in a corridor of the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.^[1]

The sculpture was one of the very few Roman bronzes that was never lost to sight. It was standing outside the Lateran Palace when the Navarrese rabbi Benjamin of Tudela saw it in the 1160s and identified it as Absalom, who “was without blemish from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head.”^[2] It was noted in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century by the English visitor, Magister Gregorius, who noted in his De mirabilibus urbis Romae that it was ridiculously thought to be Priapus.^[3] It must have been one of the sculptures transferred to the Palazzo dei Conservatori by Pope Sixtus IV in the 1470s, though it is not recorded there until 1499-1500.^[4] It was celebrated in the Early Renaissance, one of the first Roman sculptures to be copied: there are bronze reductions by Severo da Ravenna and Jacopo Buonaccolsi, called “L’Antico” for his refined classicizing figures: he made a copy for Isabella d’Este about 1501^[5] and followed it with an untraced pendant that perhaps reversed the pose. For a fountain of 1500 in Messina, Antonello Gagini made a full-size variant, probably the bronze that is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Giacobbe Giusti, Boy with Thorn

Roman marble copy, c.25 – 50 CE, of the lost 3rd century BCE Hellenistic original of the type. From the Castellani collection, Rome, said to have been found on the Esquiline. The base of the statue is worked as a rock, with a hole for a fountain pipe. (British Museum)^[6]

In the sixteenth century, bronze copies made suitably magnificent ambassadorial gifts to the King of France and the King of Spain. For Francis I of France, the gift came from Ippolito II d’Este;^[7] his copy was overseen by Giovanni Fancelli and Jacopo Sansovino, and the transaction effected by the courtly Benvenuto Cellini. For Philip II of Spain, the copy was the gift of Cardinal Giovanni Ricci. In the following century Charles I of England had a bronze Spinario by Hubert Le Sueur (Haskell and Penny 1981: 308).

Small bronze reductions were suitable for the less grand. A Still Life with ‘Spinario’ by Pieter Claesz, 1628, is conserved at the Rijksmuseum; among the riches emblemmatic of the good life, it displays a small plaster model of the Spinario.^[8]

There were also marble copies. The Medici Roman marble seems to have been among the collection of antiquities assembled in the gardens at San Marco, Florence, which were the resort of the humanists in the circle of Lorenzo il Magnifico, who opened his collection to young artists to study from. The young Michelangelo profited from this early exposure to antique sculpture, and it has been discussed whether Masaccio was influenced by the Medici Spinario or by the bronze he saw in Rome in the 1420s,^[9] but Filippo Brunelleschi more certainly adapted the Spinario’s pose for the left-hand attendant in the bronze competition panel, The Sacrifice of Isaac 1401, his trial piece for the doors of the Baptistery of San Giovanni.^[10]

The formerly popular title Il Fedele (“The faithful boy”) derived from an anecdote invented to give this intimate and naturalistic study a more heroic civic setting: the faithful messenger, a mere shepherd boy, had delivered his message to the Roman Senate first, only then stopping to remove a painful thorn from his foot: the Roman Senate commemorated the event. Such a story was already deflated in Paolo Alessandro Maffei’s Raccolta di statue antiche e moderni… of 1704^[11]

Taking into account Hellenistic marble variants that have been discovered, of which the best is the Thorn-Puller from the Castellani collection now in the British Museum,^[12] none of which have the archaizing qualities of the bronze Spinario, recent scholarship has tended to credit this as a Roman bronze of the first century CE, with a head adapted from an archaic prototype.^[13]

 

http://www.italianways.com/lo-spinario-ragazzo-con-mistero/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_with_Thorn

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World’

Giacobbe Giusti, ‘Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World’

 

Crayton Sohan of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, left, and Wolfgang Massmann, head stone conservator from the Antikensammlung, Berlin, position the head of an immense 10-foot-tall marble statue of Athena. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Giacobbe Giusti, ‘Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World’

A fragment of the colossal sculpture “Head of a Youth” is among the ancient art works on display at the Met’s exhibition of Hellenistic art.Credit Photograph courtesy the Met Museum

Giacobbe Giusti, ‘Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World’

 

The Borghese Krater. Greek, Late Hellenistic period, 40-30 B.C. Marble RMN-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY

Giacobbe Giusti, ‘Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World’

Statue of a Roman General (The Tivoli General). Roman, Late period, ca. 80-60 B.C. Marble Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma

Mass Invasion of Greek Art Comes to the New York Met

The rare treasures of the Pergamon Museum in Berlin will be on display

By

Eben Shapiro

Rhyton in the form of a Centaur Greek, Seleucid, Hellenistic period, ca. 160 B.C. Silver with gilding Antikensammlung, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna…

The Akropolis of Pergamon, by Friedrich (von) Thiersch, 1882. Pen and ink with watercolor on canvas SMB/Antikensammlung…

Mosaic Emblèma with Itinerant Musicians, Roman, Late Republican period, 2nd-1st century B.C. Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples

The Vienna Cameo Greek (Ptolemaic), Early Hellenistic period, 278-270/69 B.C. Ten–layered onyx Antikensammlung, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna…

Statuette of a Veiled and Masked Dancer (The Baker Dancer). Greek, Hellenistic period, 3rd-2nd century B.C. Bronze. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY…

Pair of Armbands with Triton and Tritoness. Greek, Hellenistic period, ca. 200 B.C. Gold and silver. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY…

Small statue of Alexander the Great astride Bucephalos Roman, Late Republican or Early Imperial period, second half of the 1st century B.C.; copy of a Greek original of ca. 320-300 B.C. Bronze Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples …

 

Statuette of the Weary Herakles Greek, Hellenistic period, 3rd century B.C., base early 1st century A.D. Bronze and silver Museo Archeologico Nazionale d’Abruzzo …

Stater of Mithridates VI Eupator Dionysos Greek, Late Hellenistic period, 86-85 B.C. Gold Epigraphic and Numismatic Museum, Athens, Greece …

Portrait of a Man. Greek, Late Hellenistic period, early 1st century B.C. Bronze Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs/Archaeological Receipts Fund …

 

Sleeping Hermaphrodite Roman, first half of the 2nd century A.D. Copy of a Greek original of the 2nd century B.C. Marble Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Roma …

 

By

Eben Shapiro

The Wall Street Journal

The Pergamon Museum in Berlin houses one of the world’s leading collection of antiquities. But World War II badly damaged the building—bullet holes from large-caliber machine guns still pockmark it—and it’s finally in the early stages of a much-needed renovation. “The building was absolutely rotten,” said Dr. Andreas Scholl, the director of the Staatliche, the museum and research group that oversees the Pergamon. “The fire brigade kept threatening to close the entire place.” Most of the museum will stay closed, with the collection off limits to the public, until 2019.

For New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the rotting of the Pergamon gave it a rare opportunity to get its hands on the some of the most prized objects of the Hellenistic period. Next week, the Met will open one of the most ambitious exhibitions of Greek art in the museum’s history, “Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World.” At the heart of the show are 73 pieces on loan from the Pergamon. “We lent very, very liberally,” said Dr. Scholl.

 

“This won’t happen again,” said Carlos A. Picón, the curator in charge of the Greek and Roman Art department at the Met. “Once the museum reopens, they won’t send one-third of its collection here.”

Dr. Scholl said the only piece he was unwilling to send was a famous marble head of the ruler Attalus. The piece is renowned for its tousled hair, and a curator was worried that the many curls were too fragile to withstand the rigors of travel. (Classical sculptors loved playing with the contrast between a figure’s smooth marble skin and the gnarly, robust beards of figures like Zeus.)

Thanks to the core provided by the Pergamon collection, “this is the largest and most comprehensive show” the museum’s Greek and Roman department has undertaken, said Mr. Picón. It’s also the department’s first major show since the Met completed its own renovation in 2007, a 15-year, $223 million project that Mr. Picón presided over.

Experts say “Pergamon” is the first major-museum show to focus on the art of the Hellenistic period, which dates from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. to the suicide of Cleopatra in 30 B.C. The exhibition, which opens Monday and closes July 17, will not travel outside of New York.

Pergamon, in modern day Turkey, was one of the wealthiest cities of the ancient world, coming into its own as Athens was in decline and before the rise of Rome. “It is one of the top-five hit-parade ancient cities,” said Mr. Picón.

For the past six years, Mr. Picón and his staff have made dozens of trips to nearly 50 museums in 12 countries, pulling together loans for the blockbuster show.

One of the most dramatic pieces they were able to borrow is an Athena statue that weighs over three tons. It was shipped in three sections from the Pergamon in Berlin and carefully reassembled in the Met galleries.

The Hellenistic period is a challenging time for art historians. It is not marked by a single school of artistic development, and artists worked in many styles with many materials. So instead of having a thematic show, the Met focused on what the museum trade calls “an objects show.”

The galleries are filled with exquisite ancient glass, opulent jewelry, engraved cameos, mosaics, lifelike bronze sculptures and dramatic marble statues. Many have never traveled to the U.S. before. “I can’t claim that every single object is the best of its type, because I would be boasting,” said Mr. Picón, but “this is the top 1% of what has survived in terms of quality.”

Crayton Sohan of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, left, and Wolfgang Massmann, head stone conservator from the Antikensammlung, Berlin, position the head of an immense 10-foot-tall marble statue of Athena. Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY

Mr. Picón—who speaks five languages and has a reading knowledge of ancient Greek and Latin—did his undergraduate work at Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges and got his Ph.D. from Oxford University. He grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and when he announced his plan to become an art historian, specializing in Greek art, his businessman father, speaking on behalf of parents around the world, was taken aback by the impracticality of the profession. Mr. Picón recalls that his father then added, “You could at least have done pre-Columbian art.”

Touring the Met galleries last week as the Met installers put the finishing touches on the show, Mr. Picón was in a state of high excitement. Pausing before a marble Alexander in the first room of the exhibition, he declared it “the most beautiful Alexander, at the height of his youth.” A nearby small bronze of Hercules was “the best.”

In a nearby gallery he paused before “a spectacular” piece of ancient glass. “You would walk a mile to see something like this,” Mr. Picón said. Even the damaged pieces were perfect. Admiring a marble head that was split in half, he said, “If you had to break it, you couldn’t break it better!” Stopping before a glass plate borrowed from the British Museum, the curator exclaimed, “It’s a glass of staggering quality—one of the best pieces in the world.”

He delights in the tiny details, pointing out an Eros admiring himself in the mirror on a tiny plaster cast.

Mr. Picón is mischievous as well. One prone statue is displayed so that its shapely backside greets the approaching viewer. “You get a nice surprise when you walk around,” he said. The piece turns out to be a hermaphrodite. One of the workers installing the statue, he said, “went white” after discovering the statue’s dual nature.

Write to Eben Shapiro at eben.shapiro@wsj.com

http://www.wsj.com/articles/mass-invasion-of-greek-art-comes-to-the-new-york-met-1460568224

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Puissance et Pathos, bronzes du monde hellénistique

Giacobbe Giusti, Puissance et Pathos, bronzes du monde hellénistique

stimento di Potere e pathosda Palazzo Strozzi (Firenze)

 

 

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Puissance et Pathos, bronzes du monde hellénistique

estimento di Potere e pathosda Palazzo Strozzi (Firenze)

Giacobbe Giusti, Puissance et Pathos, bronzes du monde hellénistique

Di: Palazzo Strozzi (Firenze)

Florence – Heureux les tempêtes et les naufrages qui ont conservé ces quelques unes des merveilles de l’art de la sculpture en bronze. La mer nous a donné non seulement le Bronzes de Riace, chefs-d’œuvre de grec classique, mais aussi de nombreuses autres œuvres plus ou moins intactes les siècles qui ont vu le grand projet impérial d’Alexandre le Grand. Nous sommes dans une période de grandes contaminations créatifs entre l’Occident et l’Orient grec mésopotamienne et perse, un vaste territoire qui a fait jusqu’à l’Indus pour limiter la force expansive du Macédonien. Des siècles d’expérimentation artistique nouvelle, séries de Périclès classique, que l’exposition “Puissance et Pathos, bronzes du monde hellénistique “, ouvert au public depuis hier 14 Mars au Palazzo Strozzi, documents avec 50 parmi les mieux conservés de bronze fonctionne dans les grands musées du monde: par Archéologique de Florence, Naples, Athènes, Thessalonique, Crète, al British Museum, Prado, la Galerie des Offices, il Metropolitan di New York, Louvre, le Kunsthistorisches Museum de Vienne et le Vatican.

 

Allestimento di Potere e pathosda Palazzo Strozzi (Firenze)

 

L’impact de la rencontre avec ces pièces en grande partie retournés de la mer est vaste intellectuel et émotionnel. Jusqu’à présent, il ne était pas possible de les voir tous ensemble, comme à Florence, triés dans une exposition cohérente et bien illustré par les légendes (sept sections thématiques, divisé par sujet, changements de style et de sensibilité artistique et le potentiel de la technique de bronze) sous le chiffre conceptuelle exprimées droit: puissance et pathos. Décédé à la force d’innovation des cités grecques, commence L’impact de la rencontre avec ces pièces en grande partie retournés de la mer est vaste intellectuel et émotionnel. Jusqu’à présent, il ne était pas possible de les voir tous ensemble, comme à Florence, triés dans une exposition cohérente et bien illustré par les légendes (sept sections thématiques, divisé par sujet, changements de style et de sensibilité artistique et le potentiel de la technique de bronze) sous le chiffre conceptuelle exprimées droit: puissance et pathos. Décédé à la force d’innovation des cités grecques, commence l’ère des rois, ouverte Alexandrie aventure exceptionnelle. L’art abandonne le pouvoir archaïque de l’humanité qui a pris possession de son existence et de l’équilibre, en harmonie avec la divinité et de la nature, pour représenter l’image de la puissance héroïque et dramatique et, à la fois, les multiples facettes de la beauté qui devient de plus en plus une expression des émotions et des sentiments. Sentiments qui sont lus sur les visages de beaucoup de charme que celui de Diadoque, générale et héritier d’Alexandre (peut-être Démétrius Poliorcète) zone à cheval sur la quatrième et troisième siècles avant JC. têtes S portrait du premier siècle ou même le buste de Lucius Calpurnius Piso, le Pontife. Du point de vue de la compréhension technique et artistique, la pièce la plus intéressante est celle de ‘Apoxyomenos, l’athlète strigile, l’outil pour nettoyer le corps par la sueur, pas pris dans une fixité parfaite, mais le débit instantané de l’action. La statue complete conservé à Vienne est comparé à plusieurs répliques dans différents matériaux, comme la version en marbre Uffizi, ou pierre sombre. –

 

                                       

La troisième section, dédiée à «corps idéaux, organismes extrêmes “, illustre les changements de style et la recherche de nouveaux sujets tirés de la vie quotidienne. La dynamique du corps est étudiée avec une grande précision de détails dans les personnages très différents de Kouroi classique puissante mais essentiellement immobiles, le modèle de qui retourne dans le goût fin de l’hellénisme. Reproduction peau parfaite, le mal rasé, Ride, la conception des muscles et les veines sont quelques-unes des possibilités que les subventions de bronze artiste

Organisée par Jens Daehner et le J. Paul Getty Museum de Los Angeles Kenneth Lapatin, L’exposition sera ouverte au Palazzo Strozzi jusqu’au 21 Juin. Ensuite, il déménager à Los Angeles (28 Juillet – 1 Novembre) de mettre fin à son voyage à la National Gallery of Art de Washington (6 Décembre – 20 Mars 2016).

– See more at: http://www.stamptoscana.it/articolo/cultura/bronzi-ellenistici-in-mostra-il-volto-del-potere-il-potere-dei-volti?lang=fr#sthash.VaEmpwzE.dpuf

 

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

estimento di Potere e pathosda Palazzo Strozzi (Firenze)

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan jewelry, Metropolitan New York

Giacobbe Giusti, Etruscan jewelry, Metropolitan New York

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

Set of jewelry, early 5th century b.c.; late Archaic
Etruscan
Gold, glass, rock crystal, agate, carnelian
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1940 (40.11.7–.18)

See complete record .

This tomb group represents one of the richest and most impressive sets of Etruscan jewelry ever found. It comprises a splendid gold and glass pendant necklace, a pair of gold and rock-crystal disk earrings, a gold fibula (dress fastener) decorated with a sphinx, a pair of plain gold fibulae, a gold dress pin, and five finger rings. Two of the rings have engraved scarabs that revolve on a swivel bezel, one is decorated with embossed satyr heads, and the other two have decorated gold bezels. The disk earring is originally a Lydian type of jewelry that became fashionable in Etruria in the latter part of the sixth century B.C., when the Etruscans were strongly influenced by eastern Greek artists and their works.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/40.11.7-.18

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Chariot Pre-Roman Etruscan

 

Giacobbe Giusti, Chariot Pre-Roman Etruscan

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

 

Bronze chariot inlaid with ivory

Period: Archaic

Date: 2nd quarter of the 6th century B.C.

Culture: Etruscan

Medium: Bronze, ivory

Dimensions: total H. 51 9/16 in. (130.9 cm) length of pole 82 1/4 in. (209 cm)

Classification: Bronzes

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1903

Accession Number: 03.23.1

On view in Gallery 170

Scenes from the life of the Greek hero Achilles

The Acquisition
In 1902, a landowner working on his property accidentally discovered a subterranean built tomb covered by a tumulus (mound). His investigations revealed the remains of a parade chariot as well as bronze, ceramic, and iron utensils together with other grave goods. Following the discovery, the finds passed through the hands of several Italian owners and dealers who were responsible for the appearance of the chariot and related material on the Paris art market. There they were purchased in 1903 by General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the first director of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Monteleone chariot is the best preserved example of its kind from ancient Italy before the Roman period. The relatively good condition of its major parts–the panels of the car, the pole, and the wheels–has made it possible to undertake a new reconstruction based on the most recent scholarship. Moreover, some of the surviving ivory fragments can now be placed with reasonable certitude.
The other tomb furnishings acquired with the chariot are exhibited in two cases on the south wall of this gallery.

The Form and Function of the Chariot
Chariots originated in the Ancient Near East during the early second millennium B.C. and spread westward through Egypt, Cyprus, and the Greek world. In the predominant early type, the car consisted essentially of a platform with a light barrier at the front.
On the Italian peninsula, the largest number of chariots come from Etruria and the surrounding regions. They are datable between the second half of the eighth and the fifth centuries B.C. and represent several varieties. None seems to have been used for fighting in battle. Most came to light in tombs; after serving in life, they were buried with their owners, male and also female.
The Monteleone chariot belongs to a group of parade chariots, so called because they were used by significant individuals on special occasions. They have two wheels and were drawn by two horses standing about forty-nine inches (122 centimeters) apart at the point where the yoke rests on their necks. The car would have accommodated the driver and the distinguished passenger.
The shape of the car, with a tall panel in front and a lower one at each side, provided expansive surfaces for decoration, executed in repoussé. The frieze at the axle, the attachment of the pole to the car, and the ends of the pole and yoke all have additional figural embellishment.

The Materials of the Chariot
Although none of the substructure of the original chariot survives, except in one wheel, much information can be gleaned from details on the bronze pieces, other preserved chariots, and ancient depictions of chariots. Note that a chariot is represented on the proper left panel of the car.
The preserved bronze elements of the car were originally mounted on a wooden substructure. The rails supporting the three main figural panels were made from a tree such as a yew or wild fig. The floor consisted of wooden slats. The wooden wheels were revetted with bronze, an exceptional practice probably reserved only for the most elaborate chariots. A bit of the preserved core has been identified as oak. The tires are of iron. The sections of the pole were mounted on straight branches.
A major component of the original vehicle was leather applied to the wooden substructure. The connection of the pole to the car would have been reinforced by rawhide straps gathered beneath the boar’s head, and the yoke would have been lashed to the pole. The upper end of the pole shows traces of the leather bands. In addition, all of the horses’ harness was of leather. Moreover, rings of pigskin with the fat attached helped reduce friction between the moving parts of the wheels.
The Monteleone chariot is distinguished not only by the extraordinary execution of the bronze panels but also by the inclusion of ivory inlays. The ivories, from both elephant and hippopotamus, are so fragmentary that only the tusks of the boar and the finials at the back of the car have been placed in their original positions. The remaining pieces are exhibited in a case on the south wall. A series of long narrow strips served as edging, perhaps around the panels of the car or on the underside of the pole. It is possible that other fragments filled the spaces between the figures in the central panel of the car. A major question concerning these adjuncts is the method of their attachment, requiring the use of an adhesive. Another question is whether the ivories were painted.

The Figures on the Chariot
The iconography represents a carefully thought-out program. The three major panels of the car depict episodes from the life of Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan War. In the magnificent central scene, Achilles, on the right, receives from his mother, Thetis, on the left, a shield and helmet to replace the armor that Achilles had given his friend Patroklos, for combat against the Trojan Hektor. Patroklos was killed, allowing Hektor to take Achilles’ armor. The subject was widely known thanks to the account in Homer’s Iliad and many representations in Greek art. The panel on the left shows a combat between two warriors, usually identified as the Greek Achilles and the Trojan Memnon. In the panel on the right, the apotheosis of Achilles shows him ascending in a chariot drawn by winged horses.
The subsidiary reliefs partly covered by the wheels are interpreted as showing Achilles as a youth in the care of the centaur Chiron and Achilles as a lion felling his foes, in this case a stag and a bull.
The central axis of the chariot is reinforced by the head and forelegs of the boar at the join of the pole to the car. The deer below Achilles’ shield appears slung over the boar’s back. The eagle’s head at the front of the pole repeats the two attacking eagles at the top of the central panel, and the lion heads on the yoke relate to the numerous savage felines on the car.
While the meaning of the human and animal figures allows for various interpretations, there is a thematic unity and a Homeric quality emphasizing the glory of the hero.

The Artistic Origin of the Chariot
The three panels of the car represent the main artistic achievement. Scholarly opinion agrees that the style of the decoration is strongly influenced by Greek art, particularly that of Ionia and adjacent islands such as Rhodes. The choice of subjects, moreover, reflects close knowledge of the epics recounting the Trojan War. In the extent of Greek influence, the chariot resembles works of virtually all media from Archaic Etruria. Contemporary carved ambers reflect a similar situation.
The typically Etruscan features of the object begin with its function, for chariots were not significant in Greek life of the sixth century B.C. except in athletic contests. Furthermore, iconographical motifs such as the winged horses in Achilles’ apotheosis and the plethora of birds of prey reflect Etruscan predilections. The repoussé panels may have been produced in one of the important metal-working centers such as Vulci by a local craftsman well familiar with Greek art or possibly by an immigrant bronze-worker. The chariot could well have been made for an important individual living in southern Etruria or Latium. Its burial in Monteleone may have to do with the fact that this town controlled a major route through the Appenine Mountains. The vehicle could have been a gift to win favor with a powerful local authority or to reward his services.
Beyond discussion is the superlative skill of the artist. His control of the height of the relief, from very high to subtly shallow, is extraordinary. Equally remarkable are the richness and variety of the decoration lavished on all of the figures, especially those of the central panel. In its original state, with the gleaming bronze and painted ivory as well as all of the accessory paraphernalia, the chariot must have been dazzling.

The Reconstruction
After the parts of the chariot arrived in the Museum in 1903, they were assembled in a presentation that remained on view for almost a century. During the new reconstruction, which took three years’ work, the chariot was entirely dismantled. A new support was made according to the same structural principles as the ancient one would have been. The reexamination of many pieces has allowed them to be placed in their correct positions. Moreover, the bronze sheathing of the pole, which had been considered only partially preserved, has been recognized as substantially complete.
The main element that has not been reconstructed is the yoke. Although the length is correct, the wooden bar simply connects the two bronze pieces.

http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/247020

http://www.machine-history.com/node/426?size=_original

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Giacobbe Giusti, Mount Falterona, ‘Il lago degli idoli’

Giacobbe Giusti, Mount Falterona ‘Il lago degli idoli’

 

Nude youth with baldric , bronze

Louvre museum, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities
Etruscan Art (9th-1st centuries BC)

Author(s):
Astier Marie-Bénédicte

musée du Louvre

This statuette comes from a votive depository found on Mount Falterona in Italy, on the site of a temple, which appears to have been frequented especially by the military. The figurine, representing a nude youth adjusting his baldric, probably adorned the upper part of a candelabrum. It has been attributed by some to a workshop in Vulci, by others to one in Etruria Padana, where great numbers of Vulcian bronzes imported in the early 5th century were subsequently copied.

The votive depot at Falterona

This statuette comes from an exceptional trove of bronze votive offerings discovered in 1838 on Mount Falterona, central Italy, near a small lake by a road linking Northern Etruria to Romagna. The collection of objects included items made between the late 6th century BC and the Hellenistic era: 620 statuettes, human figures (some of which went to the British Museum in London and to the Louvre), and representations of domestic animals; nearly 2,000 fragments of weapons and parts of the human body (heads, trunks, arms, legs, etc.); and a number of coins. The cult celebrated in this location was probably devoted to the worship of healing gods. The presence of a numerous weapons and warrior statuettes indicates that this temple, where representations of Hercules also have been found, was especially favored by the military.

A warrior figure decorating a candelabrum

The Louvre figurine represents a warrior, in the form of a nude youth, adjusting his baldric and scabbard to sheathe a two-edged sword in his right hand. The athletic build and posture of the figure echo Greek works of the classical period. The bronze maker applied the lessons of the mid-5th century BC Greek sculptor Polycletus, who invented the contrapposto pose, in which the hips and shoulders move in opposite directions. Set on a small molded base, the statuette probably decorated the upper part of a candelabrum.

An object made in Vulci or Etruria Padana

The statuette was made in the early decades of the 4th century BC, using the lost-wax solid casting method. Some have attributed it to a workshop in Vulci, but it is perhaps more likely that it was made at Spina, in Etruria Padana: there are clear links between the works made by the two centers of production ; Vulcian bronzes, imported in great numbers in the early 5th century, were subsequently copied by the craftsmen of Spina.

Bibliography
E. Hostetter, Bronzes from Spina, Mayence, 1986, p. 197, n 29.
Civiltà degli Etruschi, Florence-Milan, 1985, n 10.30.6, p. 285.
M. Cristofani, I Bronzi degli Etruschi, 1985, n 4.8, p. 256.

http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/nude-youth-baldric

Il Lago degli Idoli

Il lago degli Idoli.

Plus à l’est se trouve un petit point d’eau dénommé Lago degli Idoli. Le lac a été récemment rétabli car jusqu’à peu, il avait complètement disparu.

Il s’agissait par le passé d’un site archéologique duquel ont été extraites un nombre considérable de statuettes principalement d’origine étrusque mais aussi grecque et romaine. Une grande partie de celles-ci représente des parties anatomiques humaines mais aussi certaines représentent des animaux et semblent toutes symboliser des sacrifices : tout cela participe à donner à ce lieu un caractère sacré.

Au printemps 1838, suite à l’heureuse découverte d’une statuette en bronze par une gardienne de troupeaux aux alentours du lac, se met en place à Stia une société formée de différents groupes d’amateurs locaux qui entreprend une grande campagne de fouilles sur les lieux. L’exceptionnelle quantité de pièces mises à jour au cours des années 1838 – 1839 participeront à l’assèchement du lac afin de faciliter les excavations. Il n’y a que quelques années que le lac a été rétabli en son lit initial.

Tout le fruit de cette première campagne de fouilles fut offert au grand-duc Léopold II de Toscane qui non seulement ne se montra pas intéressé par l’acquisition de ces pièces mais en plus ne fit rien pour en empêcher la dispersion. En effet, quelques pièces ont été retrouvées dans des collections permanentes de musées prestigieux tels que Le Louvre, le British Museum et l’Ermitage mais une grande partie de ces pièces restent encore aujourd’hui introuvables^[3]. Dans les années suivantes, d’autres campagnes de fouilles se sont succédé, apportant de nouveaux résultats, surtout grâce au Groupe Archéologique Casentinois.

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Falterona

http://www.giacobbegiusti

Giacobbe Giusti, MONTE FALTERONA, ‘IL LAGO DEGLI IDOLI’

Giacobbe Giusti, MONTE FALTERONA, Il lago degli idoli”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

votive figure; Etruscan; 425BC-400BC; Chiusi; Falterona, Mount ,  British museum

 

votive figure; Etruscan; 400BC-350BC; Italy; Falterona, Mount , British museum

 

figure-fitting; Etruscan; 420BC-400BC; Italy; Falterona, Mount , British museum

figure; Etruscan; Italy; Falterona, Mount , British museim

http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx?place=34986&plaA=34986-3-1

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Kouros
bronzo – h. 18 cm
Etruria, prov. Falterona – secondo quarto del V secolo a.C.
Parigi, Musée du Louvre

Parigi, Musée du Louvre 
 stipe materiale: bronzo
dimensioni: cm 14 

votiva del Falterona: offerente femminile
I bronzi degli Etruschi
Istituto Geografico De Agostini
Milano, 1985

 

FALTERONA, THE “LAKE OF IDOLS”.
“Nullus enim fons not sacer”
(Servius, ad Aen, 7, 84)
One day (in May 1838) In the woods
Monte Falterona a shepherdess saw emerge
on the shores of Lake of Ciliegeta (approximately
1,400 meters above sea level) the first piece of a
great archaeological discovery.
The shepherdess perhaps had not recognized
the bronze statue, which his hands had
extracted from the ground, Hercle (the Heracles – Hercules
classical mythology) but he understood that
it was a precious object.
Following this discovery it was organized in Stia
a society of “amateurs” local order
to organize further research.
The excavations led to the drying up
of the water and the discovery of
one of the richest in the world votive
Etruscan, he did take to the site
name “Lake of Idols”
(FORTUNA GIOVANNONI, 11 et seq .; DUCCI 2003
11 et seq.).
“In only one day on the banks it was
well found 335 bronzes and public
after other material is added, so as to
forming in a short time the exceptional
discovery of more than 600 pieces, including statues
Human complete, small heads, parts
anatomical (busts, eyes, arms, breasts,
legs, feet), animal figures, different
fibulas, some 1,000 pieces of aes rude (pieces
bronze irregular used as rudimentary
currency), a few pieces of aes signatum
(Pieces of cast bronze to form generally
ovoid with rough signs indicating the value) and
of aes grave (the very first coin form
round with figures that identify value
and origin) “, a coin, probably
Roman, portrayed with Janus and a temple,
“Over 2,000 arrowheads, several
fragments of iron weapons and pottery ”
(DUCCI 2003, 11).
These findings are not the flower
cap of some museum Tuscan.
Unfortunately, after being unnecessarily
Granducali offered Authority, the “members
researchers “got permission to sell
to third parties. The rich collection was sold in
block and cheaply. It was edited
an exhibition in December 1842 at
the German Archaeological Institute in Rome
and this is the last news we have of the
stipe complete.
At the British Museum the seven bronzes
from the Lake of Idols occupy a
place of honor; others are in the Louvre;
one in Baltimore and one bronze sheet is to
National Library in Paris (FORTUNA
GIOVANNONI, 16-18; DUCCI 2003, 13-15). The rest
dispersed who knows where, except, perhaps, those
which should be in stores
Hermitage in St Petersburg. The
recognition of the origin of some
finds it has been possible thanks to the descriptions
and drawings that had published the Micali
(1844).
The revival of interest in the lake
Idols coincided with the emergence of
so-called “archeology of the cult” in which
recent years is attracting attention
scholars, from prehistoric to pre-classic.
“The custom, probably
background ritual or votive, to throw in the waters
metallic objects of prestige or a redemption
close to them is a phenomenon that,
at least as regards Europe, it seems
involve all prehistoric societies and
protostoriche. Recent studies, in fact, reveal
that this particular rite, linked to water
(Rivers, streams, lakes, swamps, bogs) has
lasted quite long, that age
Copper (3,400 BC) comes up to the second
Iron Age (the second half of the first millennium
BC) with a peak in the late Bronze Age
(XIII – the first half of the twelfth century
A.C..). More recent surveys show,
then, that the weapons (swords, daggers, tips
spear, ax) are almost exclusive during
the Bronze Age, while towards the end of
this period and in the Iron will
or make an appearance alongside other
objects, such as pins, knives, razors, helmets,
pruning hooks, rings, bronze and pottery. ”
“The memory of this ancient
rite remains, however, with the end
of society classic. To evoke the ties
with these practices and prehistoric
protostoriche are just two examples:
Breton myth of Excalibur, the magic sword
King Arthur (now at death), which must
be thrown in the water and returned to the
Lady of the Lake; or, coming to our
time, the coins thrown into the fountain
Trevi in ​​Rome, ‘… if late and playful’ (for
In the words of the philologist Walter Burkert)
‘Sacrifice for immersion …’ “(Swans
Sun, 47-48).
In the wake of the discovery of three more
bronzes very deteriorated, in 1972 it was decided
by the then Superintendent of Antiquities
Etruria a limited test excavation under the
direction of Francesco Nicosia (Profile of a
Valley, 52). But – as we learn from your site
the City of Stia – “the gods disturbed
They expressed their impatience with a
persistent rain, despite being full
August. ”
The recent project “Lake of Idols”
He foresaw the systematic excavation with
recovery of the material omitted from the excavations
nineteenth century, the study of the site, with analysis
pollen, stratigraphic and geomorphological:
work completed in September 2006. The results,
presented at a conference held in the Poppi
the end of the same month, have shown
the Lake of Idols appears to be the stipe
Votive that returned the highest number of
findings. E ‘provided for the restoration of the mirror
water of the lake, “to offer again
that image of the visitor magical place,
that the ancient Etruscans reached with
devotion and effort “(DUCCI 2003, 18, DUCCI
2004, 6-8). The results of the excavation
2003 conducted by Luca Fedeli were
presented in the exhibition “Sanctuaries in the Etruscans
Casentino “of 2004.
The pond, still in some papers
eighteenth century seems to indicate which source
Arno, although today is referred to as
“Capo d’Arno” the source which is about 500
meters from the site; “Some scholars was
It speculated that in ancient was also considered
the source of the Tiber, since the two rivers
still united through the dense network of canals
formed the Valdichiana “(DUCCI 2003, 16;
FORTUNA GIOVANNONI, 45-48: “Falterona, and Arno
Tiber “).
The sacredness of the Falterona not drift
only from the sources but, despite the
if not excessive height of the top
compared with those mountain (1,654 meters),
from the mountain of a dominant
wide area of ​​Tuscany and neighboring regions.
Visible from the Florentine plain as
Arezzo and from which you can gaze on
a large part of the Apennine Mountains and valleys
adjacent. Near he was to pass a
Apennine road linking Etruria
internal and Etruria Padana as bronzes
found were attributed to factories
Etruscan Po Valley area, as well as Orvieto,
Umbrian and Greek (FORTUNA GIOVANNONI, 31-
36, DUCCI 2003, 14-15). Still at the end of
VII sec. B.C. Casentino was the
offshoot’s northernmost territory
Etruscan, in direct contact with two of
people who lived long ago Italy
Central: the Ligurians in the north and the east of Umbria
(DUCCI 2003 4 THE BRIDGE 1999 Profile of a
valley).
“As for the name of the mountain in
Specifically, Devoto (in ‘Studies Etruscans’, XIII,
1939, p. 311 et seq.) It considers derived from a
plural Etruscan FALTER or faltar, (…)
adds that FALTER derives his
Once a root PAL-FAL, which took
expansions in -T (FALT-, in fact), in -AT
(PALAT-, from which ‘palatium’, the ancient name
Palatino) or -AD (FALAD-, from which
‘Falado’, adaptation of a voice Etruscan
meant ‘sky’ second Festus v. M.
Pallottino, ‘Witness the tongue Etruscae’,
1968 n. 831). Also according to the Devoto, the
PAL-root / Falzone had to indicate ‘a
round shape or a shape object
unspecified which has the function of cover ‘, from
where the more specific meaning of ‘time’,
‘Dome’. The Falterona would be that ‘a
set of domes’. ”
“It ‘should be noted, however, that the current form has a
Termination (-NA) of Etruscan own (not
attested in those that would phases
according to previous language
reconstruction of Devoto) can not be excluded
namely, that the etymology today is an adaptation
min a form with that Etruscan
termination. And ‘perhaps too simplistic
think of a compound name forever from
root Falzone, ‘dome’, ‘time (blue)’ and
Truna (etymology Etruscan according Hesychius
He corresponded to greek ARKE ‘=’ power ‘,
‘Principle’) that would mean Falterona
‘Principle of heaven’? “(Fortuna in FORTUNA
GIOVANNONI, 37 n. 2).
So also in the name of the Falterona
She recalls its ties with the sacred.
“The sacredness is
their places
dark and shadowy,
in the twilight
thought it collects
and tempers
unfold according
facets of
heart.
Evocations
need
places elected and
forest, the kingdom of
darkness and silence,
It is a perfect place for
excellence.
And if the desert,
hermitage of
holy, it is the place of the truth because there
shadows are, in equal measure the wood is
place the enigma of life, where the shadows
a teeming multiplicity transform
landscape in a constant metamorphosis and
where the soul escaped the constraints of time and
Space unfolds according to natural rhythms
in a kind of empathy with nature, in violation
codes of communication usual. ”
“The forest has since ancient place
sacred and initiation. In the Celtic tradition
Druids celebrate their rites in the forest
where some trees, considered sacred, defined
spaces reserved for ceremonies. Even among
Germans the oldest sanctuaries were
probably natural woodland. In
symbolism of the forest come together two
elements: on one hand the opening towards the
sky, home of the divine, the other clear,
definition of a protected and secret,
where the rites were held. The sacredness extended
then also the cult of the trees (…). ”
“The forest is also the place where it was
kept the primordial knowledge and place
the initiation tests “(Maresca, 7).
The sacred grove is a lucus, but with lucus
etymologically he was intended to “clear”.
As also noted on the border between Dumézil
the two meanings is not absolute and
probably the passage of the meanings is
It took place in a stadium of the ancient language
(Dumézil 1989, 46). Perhaps it is good to remember that
concepts sacrum, sanctum and religiosum
They are not interchangeable. “The same can res
be ‘sacred’ as consecrated to the gods,
‘Holy’ as subject to sanction of law,
‘Religious’ as to violate it are offended
the gods “(BRIDGE 2003).
The sacred groves, although recognized
property of a god given (or not), were
under certain conditions accessible to action
profane (economic exploitation). Before
cut a part of the forest, according to the
ancient prayers handed down by Cato, the
farmer sacrificed a porco1 turning to
1 It is worth mentioning that “a requirement for the
validity of the offer and of the ritual that the
victim manifested in some way its
consent. For this reason the animal could not
be conducted in force at the altar, as this would
It represented a very bad omen for the success of
sacrifice “(SINI 2001, 200).
god or goddess of the place “anyone” 2. And for
the gods of the woods you get to talk to
“Fauns” and “sylvan” (Etruscan Selvans) to
plural forms of the ancient Latin Italic
Lord of the Animals (BRIDGE 1998 162-
163).
“Nullus lucus sine source, nullus fons
not sacer “reminds us Servius (ad Aen, 7, 84)
a natural association and sacredness
of one automatically switches to the other. But
what will be the divinity of the Lake of Idols? The
Roman calendar celebrates October 13
Fontinalia, devoted to natural sources in
which were thrown crowns and crowned the
wells, dedicated to Fons (Source) son of Janus
and Juturna (Juturna, Diuturna) (DEL PONTE
1998, 66, Dumézil 1977 339-340, Dumézil 1989
25-44, BEST 1981 14 SABBATUCCI, 29-30 and
328-329 [Which highlights, too, the link between
Fontinalia, festivity spring water, and meditrinalia,
October 11, one of the wine festivals, in their aspects
“Medicated”]). As part of Janus (I
I like to recall that the two-faced god is only
in the pantheon Latin Ianus, and in that
Etruscan Culsans), the “good owner” of the
Carmen Saliare, include sources, not
only as the father of the god-Fons and river
Tiber, for having saved Rome from
Sabine assailants doing gush before
them a hot spring them
frightened and routed them, but also because
patron of beginnings (BRIDGE 1992 and 1998
Dumézil 1977 D’ANNA).
Not taking into account these
characteristics, the currency found in Giano
pond might seem the result of
some random fact but also the spread
of hydronyms derived from the name of DIO3
It helps to prove otherwise.
Especially near the name “Mount
2 Cato, De agr. 139: Locum conlucare Roman Opinions more
sic oportet: pig piacolo facito, verba sic conceived:
“It deus, you goddess es quorum illud sacrum est, ut tibi ius
east hog piacolo illiusce sacred coercendi ergo
harumque rerum ergo, sive ego sive quis iussu meo
fecerit, uti id recte factum siet, eius rei te hoc ergo
pig piacolo immolating bonas preces precor uti sies
volens Propitius mihi, domo familiaeque meae
liberisque meis, harumce rerum ego Macte hoc porcum
piacolo immolating esto “(SINI in 1991, 114, n. 97).
3 Fatucchi A., Janus on the trail of the cult of the Sun in
Arezzo area, Arezzo S.A., cited in FORTUNA
GIOVANNONI 1989, 40 n. 5.
Gianni “vulgar corruption of the Latin” Mons
Iani “(Apparently, in fact, still in the nineteenth century cha
the location was called Monte di Giano,
although the popular mispronunciation beginning
to indicate its present name) making
conceivable “that even the patronage of
god involve the entire Monte and
considering the name of the township
casentinese the same way as the Latin oronimo
Falterona “(Profile of a valley, 105 FORTUNA
GIOVANNONI, 39-40 and relevant bibliography).
“Macrobius (1, 11) evoked, among
insights of the ancient world of investigators
archaic, one that brightly in -anscorgeva
the ‘heaven’ “recalls Semerano
referring to said component within the
names Culsans and Ianus (123). A Further
relationship between Janus and Falterona?
Excluding the currency with the two-faced god, the only
This deity is Hercules (the famous
bronze now in the British Museum and in another
now lost but played between designs
Micali, probably produced umbra)
suggesting that it was the tutelary deity
the sanctuary.
The cult of Hercules was widespread
in ancient Italy, he traveled back with
the oxen of Geryon or in search of
Garden of the Hesperides, among the various peoples of the
Saturnia Tellus (BRIDGE 2003
MASTROCINQUE 1994). “Elected deity
patron of spring water, and worshiped
as patron saint of travelers, shepherds and
merchants: the presence of images of
animals, cattle, sheep and poultry, reproduced in
miniaturization in place of the real,
suggests the protection required to
god from pastors who probably
with their flocks migrated along the pass
Apennine restaurant nearby. The remains of
numerous weapons, together with the representation
warriors and armed youths, recall
instead the request for protection by
military, which in large numbers must be
passed near the lake. Lastly, the presence
anatomical parts of the human body seems
addressing the request for a pardon or
votive offering to the god of a body part
where it could have happened a healing “(
DUCCI 2003, 16).
But Hercules was also the ancestor
“Common” of the Etruscans and Romans.
“Son of Hercules and Omphale was
Tirreno (Dion.Hal.I.28; Paus.II.21.3; Hygin., Fab.
274), or the king Tuscus (Fest., P.487 L .;
Paul.Fest., P. 486 L), founders of the Tirreni ”
(MASTROCINQUE 1993, 23). While according to
some traditions Ercole with the daughter of Fauno
begot Latino (MASTROCINQUE 1993 and 23-41
relevant bibliography). As he wrote
the scholar Giovanni Nanni Annio in bloom
humanism, Hercules would divinity
protect Arno (FORTUNA GIOVANNONI
1989, 27-28, n. 17).
We hope to see again in the coming years
in Casentino, during a show in
programming, the “Idols” Falterona
dispersed throughout the world, at least those
identified, along with the latest discoveries.
Mario Enzo Migliori

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Falterona

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Falterona

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mont_Falterona

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com

Click to access 2007-MarioEnzoMigliori-FalteronaLagoDegliIdoli.pdf

Giacobbe Giusti, Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World

Giacobbe Giusti, Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World

First-Ever Major Exhibition of Hellenistic Bronze Sculptures Will Travel Internationally

 

The Getty, the Palazzo Strozzi, and the National Gallery of Art collaborate with the Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana to present

Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World

March 2015 – March 2016
in Florence, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.

   

MEDIA CONTACT:    
Amy Hood
Getty Communications
(310) 440-6427
ahood@getty.edu

Beginning in March 2015, the Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., will present Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World, the first major international exhibition to bring together approximately 50 ancient bronzes from the Mediterranean region and beyond ranging from the 4th century B.C. to the 1st century A.D.

During the Hellenistic era, artists around the Mediterranean created innovative, realistic sculptures of physical power and emotional intensity. Bronze—with its reflective surface, tensile strength, and ability to hold the finest details—was employed for dynamic compositions, graphic expressions of age and character, and dazzling displays of the human form.

From sculptures known since the Renaissance, such as the Arringatore (Orator) from Sanguineto (in the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence), to spectacular recent discoveries that have never before been exhibited in the United States, the exhibition is the most comprehensive museum survey of Hellenistic bronzes ever organized. In each showing of the exhibition, recent finds—many salvaged from the sea—will be exhibited for the first time alongside well-known works. The works of art on view will range in scale from statuettes, busts and heads to life-size figures and herms.

Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World is especially remarkable for bringing together works of art that, because of their rarity, are usually exhibited in isolation. When viewed in proximity to one another, the variety of styles and techniques employed by ancient sculptors is emphasized to greater effect, as are the varying functions and histories of the bronze sculptures.

Bronze was a material well-suited to reproduction, and the exhibition provides an unprecedented opportunity to see objects of the same type, and even from the same workshop together for the first time.

The travel schedule for Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World is:

• Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, Italy
  March 14 – June 21, 2015
  http://www.palazzostrozzi.org
• J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
  July 28 – November 1, 2015
  http://www.getty.edu
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
  December 6, 2015 – March 20, 2016
  http://www.nga.gov

This exhibition is curated by Jens Daehner and Kenneth Lapatin of the J. Paul Getty Museum and co-organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; with the participation of Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici della Toscana. It is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.

Bank of America is the National Presenting Sponsor of this exhibition. The Los Angeles presentation is also supported by the Getty Museum’s Villa Council.

# # #

Image: Portrait of a Man, about 100 B.C. Bronze, white paste, and dark stone, 32.5 x 22 x 22 cm. Courtesy of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. Photo: Marie Mauzy/Art Resource, NY

# # #

The J. Paul Getty Trust is an international cultural and philanthropic institution devoted to the visual arts that includes the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Research Institute, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Getty Foundation. The J. Paul Getty Trust and Getty programs serve a varied audience from two locations: the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Getty Villa in Malibu.

The J. Paul Getty Museum collects in seven distinct areas, including Greek and Roman antiquities, European paintings, drawings, manuscripts, sculpture and decorative arts, and photographs gathered internationally. The Museum’s mission is to make the collection meaningful and attractive to a broad audience by presenting and interpreting the works of art through educational programs, special exhibitions, publications, conservation, and research.

Visiting the Getty Center
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Sign up for e-Getty at http://www.getty.edu/subscribe to receive free monthly highlights of events at the Getty Center and the Getty Villa via e-mail, or visit http://www.getty.edu for a complete calendar of public programs.

 
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Giacobbe Giusti, ‘Defining beauty’

The shock of the nude

 

 

Ian Jenkins, Exhibition Curator, British Museum

I’m currently working on the Museum’s major exhibition Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art, which opens 26 March 2015. When you see the sculptures on display, you might be forgiven for thinking that the standard dress for men, in ancient Athens especially, was a state of undress. The Greeks, if their art is anything to go by, spent a lot of time starkers.

Although we must separate art from life, nevertheless, they enjoyed many more occasions for nudity than any other European civilisation before or since. The reason why they performed athletics in the nude was said to be because, in the early Olympic Games, a runner lost his knickers and as a result also lost the race. That story may be true or not but either way, it doesn’t explain the true nature of Greek athletic nudity as an expression of social, moral and political values.

 

The circumstances in which men and boys appeared naked were dictated by an exclusive attachment to certain values held by an elite ‘club’ of male citizens. To be naked was not the same as to be nude. The first befits manual workers or those engaged in lewd behaviour. Nudity by contrast was the uniform of the righteous. When a young man in ancient Athens exposed his athletic body to his peers, he was not asserting his sexuality, rather, he was demonstrating his qualification to compete in athletics and at the same time to be worthy of putting on a second skin of bronze and defending his city on the battlefield. Such young men were called Kaloi and Agathoi, that is to say, the beautiful and the good. Death in battle was the Kalos Thanatos or the beautiful death.

There is an interesting anecdote recorded in the life of the 5th-century BC philosopher Socrates, when he meets a fellow citizen Epigenes by chance. Socrates remarked tactlessly that his friend was looking rather chubby, which was rich coming from Socrates who, although he was a brave soldier, was notoriously pug-faced and pot-bellied. Epigenes told Socrates it wasn’t his business. He was now not in the army and, as a private citizen, he didn’t have to go to the gymn. Socrates replies that Epigenes owed it to his city and himself to be as fit and beautiful as possible. It was, said Socrates, the moral duty of every citizen to maintain himself in readiness in case called upon to defend his city. And besides, Epigenes was obliged to keep himself as pretty as he could be, while he was still young. The Greek body beautiful was a moral condition and one to which only the Greeks among the peoples of the ancient world were attached. Neither the Egyptians, nor the Assyrians, Persians or the Cypriots cultivated in art and in life ideal nudity.

 

 

The ideal Greek male body, then, is at the very heart of the Greek experience. Female nudity was much rarer than male nudity and the wives of well-to-do citizens were expected to stay indoors preserving their reputations with their pale complexions. Sculptors become increasingly skilled at showing the body beneath thin tissues of drapery and to judge from such objects as terracotta figurines and white marble sculpture, women were adept at flaunting their figures using drapery as a means of exaggerating their shape and so drawing attention to the body beneath. Aphrodite, goddess of love, is alone among the female Olympian gods in being represented naked. Hers is an ambiguous presence, however, for crouching or standing at her bath she appears to lure us in to erotic pleasure, only then to punish us for having the presumption to gaze upon her divine beauty.

 

 

To conclude, the Greek body is a pictorial sign through which the Greek experience is communicated. Nudity in ancient Greece was all part of an obligation to promote moral values that were amplified and endorsed through the culture of athletics and military training.

Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art opens 26 March 2015.
Sponsored by Julius Baer
Additional support
In memory of Melvin R Seiden
Mrs Jayne Wrightsman, OBE

http://blog.britishmuseum.org/tag/ancient-rome/

http://www.giacobbegiusti.com