The Art Museum the Art Museum 1 –3 25–43
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The Art Museum The Art Museum 1 –3 25–43 4–14 15–24 51–62 63-65 44–50 108–116 71–91 92–107 66–70 117–130 209–219 226 227 156–187 188–208 –242 –272 131–155 220–225 327 373 279–279 280–308 309–318 319–326 –372 –000 Gallery Number Gallery Number Art of the Stone Age 1–3 Italian Renaissance 156–187 Ancient Near East 4–14 Northern Renaissance 188–208 Ancient Egypt 15–24 South Asia 209–219 Ancient Greece 25–43 South-East Asia 220–225 Early Italian and Etruscan Art 44–50 Native Cultures of the Americas 226–242 Ancient Rome 51–62 Baroque and Rococo 227–272 Native Cultures of Early Europe 63–65 Neoclassicism 273–279 Central Asia 66–70 Art of the Nineteenth Century 280–308 China and Korea 71–91 Africa 309–318 Japan 92-107 Australasia and Oceania 319–326 Byzantine Art 108–116 Art from 1900 to Mid-Century 327–372 Islamic Art 117–130 Art Since the Mid-20th Century 373–000 Medieval Europe 131–155 51 Art Before the Empire: Luxury in the Roman Republic Ancient Rome ‘The beginnings of foreign luxuries that stretched from North Africa to this period, with the confluence of from the Villa of the Mysteries (4) were introduced to Rome from the Turkey. Although this image of moral artists, wealth and the need to use depicts rites ‘imported’ from Greece, army in Asia. For the first time, they decline was a popular literary theme, art for specific social and politcal part of the cult of Dionysos that was 51–62 imported into Rome bronze couches, there was truth in the idea that the purposes, that Roman art was born. temporarily banned by the Roman costly cloth coverings ... Such things, second and first centuries BC marked Roman patrons were fascinated by Senate as a foreign threat to public which were then so conspicuous, a turning point in Roman lifestyles regions at the expanding boundaries order and morality. Greek master- were but the seeds of future luxury!’ and the luxury arts. As armies con- of their empire. The Nilotic Mosaic pieces were brought to Rome, and new quered more territory around the (3), for example, presents a fanciful sculptures were created there to meet So lamented the Roman historian Mediterranean, pillaged wealth and vision of Egypt for its Italian audi- an increasing demand. The forms and Livy (59 BC–AD 17), describing the craftsmen made their way to Rome, ence, probably drawing on the work ideas of the Hellenistic Greek world period in the mid-second century BC and the decoration of private houses of Hellenistic topographers and zo- were all readily adopted and adapted when Rome was amassing an empire grew more elaborate. It was during ologists. The Bacchic initiation scene for new Roman patrons. 51 Art Before the Empire: Luxury in the Roman Republic 52 The Age of Augustus 53 Imperial Portraiture: The Face of Empire 54 Historical Relief: The Story of Empire 55 Wall Painting 56 Mosaic 57 Adorning the Table and the Body 58 Funerary Art 59 Exhibition: Adaptation and Imitation in Roman Sculpture 60 Provincial Roman Art 61 The New Order: Imperial Art in Late Antiquity 62 Piazza Armerina: Private Art in Late Antiquity No civilization has had as enduring and powerful an impact Roman art as a whole is in many ways an amalgamation: on Western art as the Roman Empire. Many of the images local patrons and artists chose the best visual means to created then were part of an art of power, perpetuating express their messages from a range of options and styles. a social and political system that set the city of Rome and In many cases this meant the visual idioms of the Classi- the imperial family at its centre. Later, from the intellec- cal and Hellenistic Greek world. Indeed, it was Rome’s own tual rediscovery of Classical Rome in the Renaissance to adulation of the arts of ancient Greece that cemented the the twentieth century, the forms and styles of the empire important place held by Greek art in Western art history. became the forms and styles of culture, learning and, perhaps As a result, perhaps what best defines Roman art, more most importantly, authority. Roman art offered many of the than any distinct style, are the social uses to which it was models that defined ‘greatness’, both aesthetic and social, put: nearly every sculpted, painted or crafted object was in the Western canon. designed to communicate something about its subject’s or owner’s status and position. At its largest extent in the mid-second century AD, Rome’s It was the imperial system as a whole that allowed the power stretched from Britain to Syria; roughly a quarter arts to flourish. Peace and relatively uniform governance of of the world’s population lived under Roman rule, creat- the empire encouraged production and trade. This in turn ing one of the most cosmopolitan and multicultural soci- encouraged the circulation of craftsmen, the trade in raw eties the world has ever known. Rome was governed by a materials, and innovations in crafting techniques. At the republican senate when its military expansion began in the same time, the economic boom created reserves of wealth 1 2 fourth and third centuries BC, but the growth of empire en- that could be invested in art. For elite Romans across 1. Orestes and Electra Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. statue groups by the same group was common for Hermes, placed atop shafts on Classical Greek tastes. This couraged the rise of powerful generals in the first centu- the empire, artworks were a worthwhile investment, for 1st century AD; marble The sculpture is a pastiche workshop, while the woman is decorative garden statuary. which the only other feature herm, signed by a second- H: 1.5 m / 4 ft 11 in of earlier Greek statues and sculpted in a pose adapted was an erect phallus – were century BC Greek artist, was ry BC; the first emperor, Augustus, established a system of monetary capital could be transformed into items of so- It is uncertain whom these styles, based heavily on fifth- from Classical statue of 2. Boethos of Kalchedon religious objects used to mark found in an early first-century statues represent, but they are and fourth-century Greek Aphrodite, but wearing her belt Herm, 2nd century BC; bronze boundaries and sacred sites. BC shipwreck near Mahdia, rule in the first centuryAD that was to continue for nearly cial prestige that helped to maintain their influential roles frequently identified as the prototypes. The pose and style low in a manner typical of the H: 1.03 m / 3 ft 3¾ in In Republican Italy such Tunisia, along with decorative mythological siblings Orestes of the male figure were Hellenistic period. The three- In Classical Greece, herms – statues became popular garden statuary on its way from Greece 400 years. in society. and Electra, children of repeated in several similar quarters lifesize scale of the heads, usually of the God decorations, evocative of to an Italian market. Room 51 Ancient Rome 74 Exhibition: The Terracotta Warriors of Qin Shi Huangdi For centuries, stories circulated The emperor rests in peace to the in works displayed in Rooms 75 and 76. all beyond repair. Blame for the damage and fighting role. The attention to teams comprised four horses, but in nearby, and a team of bare-chested industry were used for moulded heads about the megalomaniac First present day. However, in 1974 some The lifesized terracotta figures has traditionally been ascribed to rebel detail even extends to the patterns the interest of mobility the Qin army wrestlers or weightlifters showed off and hands. These were then finished Emperor of Qin, while his huge tomb of his subjects began to come to found in four pits around the tomb soldiers entering the pits in 206 BC, on the soles of their boots. In this view, made growing use of archers mounted their powerful physiques. individually with wet clay to represent mound stood sentinel over an impe- light, not only to put his reign into mound still do their duty, protecting though the effects of an earthquake lines of armoured infantrymen stand individually on horseback. The terracottas showed, too, how the particular features of their models, rial cemetery outside Xi’an. Beneath perspective, but also to bring into the emperor’s mortal remains, cannot be ruled out. to attention in the foreground; they An entire terracotta administra- far ceramic and sculptural concepts and the sections joined together with the mound, the opulence of his sub- focus the monstrous grandeur of this defending his spirit and deflecting the Officers stand some 20 centime- have thick collars or scarves around tion and royal household were also had advanced through the first more clay. Working in teams, the terranean palace – its central tomb and other ancient burial concepts, and curiosity of archaeologists digesting tres (8 in) taller than conscripted men; their necks. All have their hair tied in intended to accompany the emperor millennium BC. The figures were made makers stamped their finished figures chamber defended with rivers of to reveal for the first time the early the implications of what they have soldiers stand and kneel on guard, a bun, and though the bright colours into the next world. In adjoining pits, of clay, using techniques for simple as a means of identification, and were mercury and primed crossbows – was history of human sculpture in China. found so far. The complete army armed with crossbows, swords, spears that once covered the figures have figures of civilian officials wearing elements such as arms, legs and torsos liable to punishment for inferior work.