Greek Art Special Exhibitions
Current and Upcoming Shows in 2007 and 2008
Four museum special exhibitions describe the development of Greek art from the Neolithic Cycladic Islands through the origins of the modern Hellenic state in 1830 A.D.
Various periods of Greek art are the subjects of four museum special exhibitions, only one of which is traveling. Visitors can see Cycladic, Minoan, classical and Byzantine works. And one presentation scientifically recreates how the white marble statues of ancient Greece were actually painted brightly.
Alexander's Image and the Beginning of Greek Portraiture
A selection of coins from the Arthur Stone Dewing Greek Numismatic Foundation and the Sackler Museum illustrates the origins of Macedonian royal currency. Its imagery is explored through type or role portraits of early kings as horsemen to realistic renderings of physiognomy and the eventual idealized images of Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 B.C.).
- Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, MA USA: September 22, 2007-January 20, 2008
Gods in Color: Painted Sculpture of Classical Antiquity
The original colors of Greek and Roman sculpture are revealed by more than 20 full-size recreations of works from classical antiquity. With their approximations of bright pigment, the reproductions are displayed with some 35 authentic statues and reliefs. The results of studies that used raking and ultraviolet light, X-ray fluorescence, polarized light microscopy and infrared spectroscopy have definitively dispelled the Renaissance and Neoclassical notions of ancient marble sculpture having been purely white and unadulterated by paint. The exhibition is divided into three sections: archaic and classical Greek sculpture; Hellenistic and imperial Roman statuary; and ancient Near Eastern, Egyptian and Cycladic art. A partial reconstruction of the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia (490-480 B.C.) from the Greek island of Aegina, replete with a Trojan warrior, is a highlight of the installation.
- Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, MA USA: September 22, 2007-January 20, 2008
The Greeks: Art Treasures from the Benaki Museum, Athens
The development of Greek civilization is chronicled over nearly 8000 years, from Neolithic times beginning in 6000 B.C. through Roman, medieval Byzantine and Ottoman rule, culminating in unification under the modern Hellenic state in the 1820s. Some 157 splendid artifacts, sculptures, paintings and decorative objects are exhibited.
- Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, Portugal: September 28, 2007-January 6, 2008
- Canadian Museum of Civilization, Gatineau, Quebec: May 29-December 10, 2008
From the Land of the Labyrinth: Minoan Crete, 3000-1100 B.C.
More than 220 ceremonial offerings and vessels, figurines, inscribed tablets, jewelry, pottery, seals, tools and wall paintings illustrate the Bronze Age history and culture of Crete, the large Aegean island best known for its mythical King Minos and his legendary labyrinth. Crete's early civilization flourished in the 3rd and 2nd Millennia B.C. It produced settlements, palace architecture and art, estates and cemeteries. The exhibition describes Minoan government and society, everyday life, religion, funerary practices, art, writing, foreign relations and trade. The arrival of the Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland to Crete's shores and the subsequent collapse of the Minoan bureaucracy around 1100 B.C. are addressed.
- Onassis Cultural Center, New York, NY USA: March 13-September 13, 2008
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