Spectacular but occasionally sagging: Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art at the British Museum
This article originally appeared on Culture24.
Exhibition review: Defining Beauty: The Body in Ancient Greek Art, British Museum
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 2015This dramatically monochrome space is a sharp contrast to the cross-cultural riot of colour in the next room. Here, sculptures are reconstructed in all the vivid shades that originally adorned the pure white marble. Parallels are drawn with Mayan and Medieval Christian art, which also used colour for aesthetic and symbolic purposes.
The conclusion of the exhibition is, if anything, more impressive than the introduction. The Belvedere Torso, on loan from the Vatican Museum, and the sculpture of Dionysus from the pediment of the Parthenon are displayed up-close and personal.
These two pieces have garnered the most attention in the press around the exhibition, and deservedly so. Even in their battered and broken states, they are majestic: effortlessly realistic, with cold stone transformed into flesh and blood.
Belvedere Torso (1st century BC). Vatican, Museo, Pio-Clementino© Photo Scala, FlorenceAncient Greece was an exceptional and exceptionally complex society where politics, war, economy, philosophy, science and art were totally intertwined. But here, art stands almost alone, with only incidental references to the contemporary context of the works.
For instance, the Persian Wars, which shook both the Athenian and the wider Greek society to the core, and saw invaders within the very walls of Athens, are only mentioned in passing. And the sacking of the Acropolis is not touched upon at all, when in fact this traumatic event sparked a rebuilding programme that brought us arguably the greatest monument of ancient Greece in the Parthenon and its sculptures.
However, the works on display lose none of their power to reach out to the viewer, even at a distance of thousands of years. They capture moments that are as instantly recognisable today as when they were first made: a bronze sculpture of a baby stretching up its chubby arms, or a dainty statuette of Aphrodite that almost seems to wobble as the goddess carefully balances herself to adjust her sandal.
Black-figured amphora: the death of Priam. Greek (circa 550BC-540BC). Vulci, Lazio, Italy© The Trustees of the British MuseumThey also prove that the Greeks were not all divinely-gifted artists. Enthusiastic experiments with new techniques and complex compositions were not always entirely successful: some bizarre positions and impossible anatomy are on show alongside the near-mathematical perfection of the fine statuary.
Across the exhibition, neat and witty contrasts are set up. Colossal sculptural heads of Hera and Herakles – eternal mythological enemies – engage in a face-off from opposite sides of one room, while in another a young ladies’ demure game of knucklebones is juxtaposed with two boys grappling and biting each other in the fallout from a similar game.
And you can sense curatorial tongue firmly in cheek in descriptions of the deviant antics of the satyrs (half-man, half-goat) and in the retelling of the ancient Greek urban myth of one young man’s night of passion locked in a temple with Praxiteles’ famed statue of Aphrodite.
Throughout the exhibition, the skill and humanity of the artists of ancient Greece shine through. All life is here, from podgy toddlers to balding old men, elegant ladies to comic actors and seductive dancers to military heroes.
Through their depictions of the human body, these artists allow us to catch a glimpse of much more: of love and war, myth and reality and life and death over two thousand years ago.
- Defining beauty: the Body in Ancient Greek Art is at the British Museum, London until July 5 2015. Open 10am-5.30pm (8.30pm Friday, 9am-5.30pm Saturday and Sunday). Tickets £16.50 (free for under-16s). Book online.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.
Marble relief (Block XLVII) from the North frieze of the Parthenon. The frieze shows the procession of the Panathenaic festival, the commemoration of the birthday of the goddess Athena. Designed by Phidias, Athens, Greece (438BC-432BC)© The Trustees of the British Museum
Ilissos. Marble statue of a river god from the West pediment of the Parthenon. Designed by Phidias, Athens, Greece (438BC-432BC)© The Trustees of the British Museum
Studies of a reclining male nude: Adam in the fresco 'The Creation of Man' on the vault of the Sistine Chapel. (circa 1511). Dark red chalk over some stylus underdrawing (left calf and elsewhere). Michelangelo© The Trustees of the British Museum
Marble statuette of Socrates (Hellenistic original of the 2nd century BC or a Roman copy, Alexandria, Egypt)© The Trustees of the British Museum
Bronze statuette of Ajax (720BC-700BC, Greece)© The Trustees of the British Museum
Bronze vessel in the form of the head of a young African woman (Hellenistic, 2nd century BC-1st century BC). Funded by The Art Fund© The Trustees of the British Museum
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
A figure of a naked man, possibly Dionysos. Marble statue from the East pediment of the Parthenon. Designed by Phidias, Athens, Greece (438BC-432BC)© The Trustees of the British Museum
Marble metope from the Parthenon (South metope XXXI). This metope is from the eastern half of the south side of the temple. The South metopes in the British Museum show the battle between Centaurs and Lapiths at the marriage-feast of Peirithoos. Designed by Phidias, Athens, Greece (438BC-432BC)© The Trustees of the British Museum
Detail of head of Apoxyomenos. Bronze, Hellenistic or Roman replica after a bronze original (second quarter or end of 4th century BC)© Tourism Board of Mali Losinj
Marble statue of a discus-thrower (discobolus) by Myron. Roman copy of a bronze Greek original (5th century BC)© The Trustees of the British Museum
Apoxyomenos. Bronze, Hellenistic or Roman replica after a bronze original (second quarter or end of 4th century BC)© Tourism Board of Mali LosinjWas the selfie started by 13th century Italian painters? New research shows "images within images"
From the Far East to the North West, Manchester Art Gallery celebrates Asian craft
Curator's Choice: The Foundling Museum's Stephanie Chapman on Sir Jacob Epstein's babies
