BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Richmond -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts -- Ancient

VA -- Richmond -- Virginia Museum of Fine Arts -- Ancient:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. VMFAAN_110204_015.JPG: Roman Head of Homer, ca 2nd century "I cannot lay down a firm foundation for praising Homer as there is nothing but the poems themselves." -- Lucian (2nd century) No one knows whether a single author wrote the Iliad and Odyssey, but centuries after they thought Homer had lived, the Greeks created a portrait of an old man with deeply set eyes and parted lips. This portrait, a Roman version of a Hellenistic Greek original, reflects the literary tradition that Homer was a blind seer-poet and a wandering bard who sang his poems to an audience that had yet to learn to write.
2. VMFAAN_110204_022.JPG: Mycenaean Statuette of an Ox, 12th century BC
3. VMFAAN_110204_028.JPG: Mycenaean Stirrup-Jar, 13th-12th century BC The vase's shape takes its name from its stirrup-like handles. The form of these storage vessels originated in the Minoan culture but was adopted by the Mycenaeans.
4. VMFAAN_110204_045.JPG: Early Cycladic I Beaker, 3000-2800 BC Cords were threaded through the lugs of this beaker to make it easier to carry. About three hundred examples of Cycladic beakers are known. Stone Vessels of the Cyclades: Most surviving Cycladic stone vessels have been found in graves, but prior to burial they may have been used in everyday life. The largest vessels are several feet tall and were probably made by striking excess material from a block of stone and then shaping it with abrasives; the interiors may have been hollowed out by turning the vessels on lathes and using an abrasive powder such as sand or crushed obsidian or quartz. Cycladic Figures: Some 95 percent of Cycladic figures are of women, typically with arms crossed over chests, knees slightly bent, and heads upturned. Modern scholars have yet to determine the significance of these figures for their makers; some suggest that they are idols or images of supplicants. Though the figures are often exhibited in museums upright (as if on tiptoe), they were designed to recline rather than stand upright.
5. VMFAAN_110204_057.JPG: The Trojan War: The Trojan War began with the so-called Judgment of Paris, when the Trojan prince Paris was asked to decide which of three goddesses was the most desirable -- Hera, queen of the gods; Athena, goddess of wisdom; or Aphrodite, goddess of love. Paris chose Aphrodite, and as a reward was allowed to marry the most beautiful woman in the world: Helen, wife of Menelaos, king of Sparta. This episode sparked a war that continued for ten years, until Odysseus devised the trick of the Trojan Horse that allowed the Greeks to capture and destroy the city of Troy. After the war, the Greek heroes returned home, where most met unhappy ends. In the Odyssey, Homer chronicles the ten-year voyage home of Odysseus.
6. VMFAAN_110204_060.JPG: Greek Black-Figure Neck-Amphora, ca 515 BC These two vases are attributed to the Antimenes Painter. Both show scenes from the Judgment of Paris, with the god Hermes, holding his caduceus, leading the three goddesses toward the Trojan prince. One vase also shows the return of Helen to her husband, King Menelaos, after the destruction of Troy. The goddesses' forearms, hands, and faces are painted white, a standard color used by Greek artists to depict women.
7. VMFAAN_110204_068.JPG: Greek Black-Figure Neck-Amphora (Storage Vessel), ca 510 BC Inscriptions on other versions of this scene identify the dice players as the Greek heroes Ajax and Achilles. In this version, an image of Athena stands behind them. The popular scene was perhaps invented by the influential vase painter Exekias between 540 and 530 BC, the very period when Homer's Iliad and Odyssey may have been first written down.
8. VMFAAN_110204_072.JPG: Greek Black-Figure Lekythos (Storage Vessel), ca 510-500 BC "But Zeus's daughter Athena spurred the Argives on -- Athena first in glory, third-born of the gods -- whenever she saw some slacker hanging back." -- Homer, Iliad The goddess Athena accompanies three heavily armed soldiers (hoplites) as they charge into battle while a white-robed charioteer guides the chariot.
9. VMFAAN_110204_079.JPG: Greek Black-Figure Neck-Amphora, ca 515 BC These two vases are attributed to the Antimenes Painter. Both show scenes from the Judgment of Paris, with the god Hermes, holding his caduceus, leading the three goddesses toward the Trojan prince. One vase also shows the return of Helen to her husband, King Menelaos, after the destruction of Troy. The goddesses' forearms, hands, and faces are painted white, a standard color used by Greek artists to depict women.
10. VMFAAN_110204_091.JPG: The Birth of Rome: Ancient coins often depict key moments or figures (both legendary and historical) in a city's history. Beginning in the late Republic (ca 130 BC), Romans began depicting the founding myths of Rome on their coinage. This group of coins shows the seduction of Rhea Sylvia, a Vestal Virgin, by Mars, the god of agriculture and War; the she-wolf (lupa) nursing Romulus and Remus (the offspring of this seduction); and the shepherd, Faustulus, who raised Romulus and Remus after discovering them near a fig tree.
11. VMFAAN_110204_113.JPG: Myth of Civic Identity: While heroes and heroines often provided models for individual behavior, mythological characters and events were often closely tied with civic identify. The nymph Arethusa dwelt in the harbor of Syracuse while the winged horse Pegasus was often depicted on Corinthian coins because he was the steed of the legendary Corinthian Bellerophon. For much of the Republic period, Romans put images of Roma, the city personified as a goddess, on the front of their coins, and frequently included the Dinoscurii -- the sons of Jupiter (the Greek Zeus) -- on the back in recognition of the aid the Dinoscurii provided the city in its early history.
12. VMFAAN_110204_115.JPG: Greek Red-Figure Hydria (Water Jug), 450 BC Perseus beheading the Gorgon Medusa "Now Medusa alone was mortal; for that reason Perseus was sent to fetch her head." -- Apollodorus, Library, 2.4.2 Medusa was one of three Gorgons, snake-haired monsters who turned all who gazed upon them into stone. The hero Perseus chopped off Medusa's head with the help of the divinities Athena (shown here with her helmet and shield) and Hermes (holding his caduceus). Perseus kept the head in a magic pouch (held in his left hand) until he gave it to the [sic] Athena, who placed it on her aegis (a magically protective garment).
13. VMFAAN_110204_126.JPG: Greek Black-Figure Amphora (Storage Vessel), 540 BC Herakles was the most popular hero of antiquity and was frequently worshipped as a god. He is best known for the twelve labors he performed to atone for killing his wife and children in a fit of madness. His first labor was to slay a fearsome lion that was devouring the people of Nemea (near Corinth). Since swords and arrows could not penetrate the lion's hide, Herakles killed it with a club and used the beast's own claws to skin it; afterward, he word the skin as both a trophy and protective garment.
14. VMFAAN_110204_137.JPG: Greek Kalyx-Krater (Mixing Bowl), 4th century BC Battles between Greeks and Amazons, a mythical tribe of female warriors, were popular in Greece, Etruria and Rome. In this South Italian version, the goddess Artemis and her brother Apollo, both with bows and quivers, look down upon pairs of fighting warriors as a winged Nike (Victory), approaches Athena.
15. VMFAAN_110204_155.JPG: Red-Figure Neck-Amphora (Storage Vessel), ca 340 BC The youth holding armor and the building in which he sits are painted in white, suggesting a marble tomb for a fallen warrior. Produced as a grave offering, this vessel has a hole in the bottom, perhaps to render it useless to would-be grave robbers.
16. VMFAAN_110204_168.JPG: Greek Relief Plaque, 4th century BC This masterful relief is perhaps from the shoulder guard of a cuirass or the check piece of a helmet. It shows a satyr kneeling in a landscape (indicated by a tree) with a dramatically foreshortened right leg and left hand. A satyr typically had a snub nose, wears a panther skin, and bears a thyrsus (a staff surmounted by a pinecone).
17. VMFAAN_110204_176.JPG: Greek Red-Figure Bell-Krater (Mixing Bowl), 330-310 BC In Greek and Roman religion, offerings were made to the gods prior to most undertakings. Here a warrior prepared to depart for war while a woman pours out a libation (liquid offering). The woman's headdress and the feathers on the warrior's helmet are native Italic attire, not Greek, which suggests that the vase was made for the native market. The Black and the Red: Painting Techniques of Greek Vases: Most Greek vases are classified on the basis of the technique used to paint them. The black-figure technique consisted of painting figures with slip (diluted clay) on the surface of a vase and incising details into it; when the vase was fired, the slip turned black in contrast with the (usually) reddish unpainted background. Though beautiful and highly-elaborate scenes could be rendered in black-figure, the technique was not adequate for showing over-lapping figures, perspective, or foreshortening (e.g., of the horse heads on Zeus's throne on the Birth of Athena vase). The red-figure technique, which arose in Athens around 530 BC, was the reverse: most of the vase was painted with slip and the figures were left unpainted save for the details, which were panted rather than incised. The red-figure technique proved far more flexible for rendering subtle effects, such as the sense of depth in the tableau of Ge giving Erichthonios to Athena in the Birth of Erichthonios vase. Additional colors (e.g. white, yellow, or purple) were sometimes added to both black- and red-figure vases.
18. VMFAAN_110204_186.JPG: Greek Aryballos (Oil Bottle) in the Shape of a Warrior's Head, 600-590 BC Athletes often used aryballoi to carry oil for cleaning their skin after exercising at the gymnasium. This aryballos thus brings together two of the most important activities of Greek men -- exercise (training) and war.
19. VMFAAN_110204_192.JPG: Greek Flame-Palmette Finial for a Funerary Stele, mid-4th century BC This style of the palmette became common in Athenian funerary art in the 4th century. The lower part of the stele (pillar) was decorated with a depiction of a loutophoros (a vessel used for water in wedding and funerary rituals), only the top of which survives. The inscription was carved freehand using letter forms typical of the mid-4th century.
20. VMFAAN_110204_210.JPG: Victory Monuments: Warriors often dedicated miniature versions of armor in thanksgiving for their survival. This cuirass recalls the dedication of the enemy's armor as a tropaeum (trophy) by a general at the site of a victory. In art, dejected prisoners were often shown at the foot of such tropaea. These coins include images of Nike, the winged personification of Victory.
21. VMFAAN_110204_233.JPG: Coins of Macedonia: Alexander the Great was the first living Macedonian to put his own image on a coin; prior to his reign, Macedonian coinage did not feature portraits of living rulers.
22. VMFAAN_110204_247.JPG: Egyptian Gods in the Roman World: Egyptian gods such as Apis, Osiris, Serapis, and Isis were widely worshipped throughout the Roman empire. From early in Egyptian history, the god Osiris was worshipped in the form of the Apis Bull, a symbol of strength and fertility closely linked to the king. Actual bulls were worshipped in a special sanctuary and tended by priests. Upon their deaths, these bulls were mummified and buried amid outbursts of great mourning.
23. VMFAAN_110204_255.JPG: Roman Mithras Slaying the Bull (Tauroctony), early 3rd century AD The symbolism of this formulaic scene remains unclear. It shows the god Mithras plunging his sword into a bull's neck while a dog and serpent drink the gushing blood and a scorpion bites the bull's testicles. The celestial twins of light and darkness, Cautes and Cautopates, hold torches, while Sol (the sun) and Luna (the moon) look from the corners. This was the central image of the Mithraic mysteries, an all-male cult especially popular in the Roman army. The name Mithras refers to a much earlier Persian deity.
24. VMFAAN_110204_271.JPG: Roman Bust of Serapis, 2nd century AD The cult of Serapis was created by the Ptolemies in Egypt as part of their efforts to blend traditional Egyptian and Greek religion. The god combined the features of the Egyptian gods Apis and Osiris with the iconography of bearded Greek deities such as Zeus and Hades. This bust is based on the cult image in the famous Serapeum (temple of Serapis), which showed Serapis with a modius (grain measure) on his head symbolizing Egypt's fertility. The emperor Septimius Severus (reigned 193-211) modeled many of his portraits on Zeus Serapis.
25. VMFAAN_110204_295.JPG: This gallery was being refurbished
26. VMFAAN_110204_315.JPG: Roman (Egypt) Faiyum Portrait of a Woman, late 3rd-4th century This type of portrait painting is named after the Egyptian site where the first examples were found. Placed over the faces of mummies instead of the masks used earlier in Egypt, these panels reflect the merging of Egyptian funerary practices with Graeco-Roman portraiture. This evocative example is painted in the encaustic technique, in which pigment was added to heated beeswax and applied to a wooden panel.
27. VMFAAN_110204_328.JPG: Roman Portraiture: The portrait style now called veristic (from the Latin word for truth) is one of the most significant contributions Romans made to the Western artistic tradition. The style arose during the late Roman Republic and was periodically revived in later centuries. In making veristic portraits, artists seem to map each detail of the individual's face, "warts and all." The faces that emerge embody the virtues Romans most admired -- hardiness, determination, indifference to outward beauty, uncompromising realism, and pragmatism. In contrast to veristic images, idealizing portraits sought to portrait individuals as they wished to appear (Emperor Augustus, who lived to be 76, was always depicted in the prime of life). The same period that saw the emergence of such colorful figures as Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompey (Pompey the Great), Mark Anthony, and Octavian (known as Augustus after 27 BC). These images bring to life the characters and events recorded by such writers as Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, and Plutarch.
28. VMFAAN_110204_386.JPG: Greek Aphrodite and Eros, ca 120 BC Prior o the Hellenistic period, females (unlike males) were rarely depicted nude. Like many of the early images of nude women, this statuette shows Aphrodite, in this case seminude. Here, the goddess of love gazes into a mirror as she adjusts her hair and her son, Eros, holds a cosmetic box. Such complicated terracottas were made from molds; the cast pieces were assembled and painted with the bright colors used to ornament stone and terracotta statues in antiquity.
29. VMFAAN_110204_434.JPG: Roman Head of Dionysus, 2nd century AD Dionysus, the god of wine and theatre but also of madness, was worshipped in some cults as a god of the dead who could grant rebirth, although the extent and specific beliefs of these cults cannot be determined. He was a shifter of shapes and aspects who is portrayed in public, domestic, and funerary settings more often than any other deity. In this depiction, Dionysus wears an ivy crown and has heavy eyelids that suggest he is dreaming or slightly drunk.
30. VMFAAN_110204_444.JPG: Greek Red-Figure Bull-Krater (Mixing Bowl), ca 380 BC The phlyax play was a type of rustic South Italian comedy that parodies famous myths and plays and spoofed situations from daily life. South Italian vases showing these plays are especially valuable because the texts have not survived. Phlyax actors wore padded costumes and comic masks that identified the type of character they portrayed (here an old man and two slaves).
31. VMFAAN_110204_458.JPG: Greek Funerary Figures, 3rd century. BC
32. VMFAAN_110204_520.JPG: Roman Asiatic Sarcophagus, 3rd century AD The figures on this sarcophagus are all erotes, winged boys who take their name from the god Eros. In the center of one long side and on a short side a drunken Eros collapses into the arms of a companion, a common way of showing Dionysos, the god of wine. On the second short side, two erotes wrestle while a third holds a palm branch for the victor. The significance in antiquity of the scenes on this sarcophagus may have varied from viewer to viewer. Some may have seen in Dionysiac celebration the promise of a blissful afterlife, while others may have been reminded of feasts held at tombs or imagery that adorned many homes and public spaces. Roman Sarcophagi: The word sarcophagus (from Greek, meaning "flesh eater") describes a lidded chest used for the burial of the dead. Prior to the 2nd century, Romans rarely used sarcophagi, preferring to cremate their dead and place the ashes in urns or ossuaries (containers for bones). The use of sarcophagi continued into the Christian period, and their stylistic development provides a key to understanding the history of Roman art. Sarcophagi were used throughout the empire, but most examples were produced and used in and around the city of Rome. These "western sarcophagi" were usually placed in niches inside closed tombs, so they are usually decorated on only one long side. Both "Attic sarcophagi" (produced in Athens) and "Asiatic sarcophagi" (produced in Asia Minor) were displayed in the open air as free-standing monuments and are carved on all four sides. Both forms frequently have steeply gabled lids, but Asiatic sarcophagi are distinguished by their architectural form -- such as the columns in the corners of VMFA's example. Sarcophagi were left plain or decorated in a variety of ways, ranging from simple garlands to complex multifigural designs. Mythological subjects are most common, especially scenes with Dionysos, but depictions of daily life as well as portraits also occur. The interpretation of this subject matter has been much debated: some argue that it refers to a belief in an afterlife, while others see no special significance in the imagery as it so closely resembles the decoration of public and private spaces used by the living.
33. VMFAAN_110204_565.JPG: Roman Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, ca 38 AD Romans greeted the accession of Emperor Gaius in 37 AD with calls of "our baby" and "our star." (He was also known as Caligula, "Little Boots," because of the soldier's boots he wore as a child.) Yet just four years later, he was assassinated for his cruelty, and virtually all public images of him were destroyed. VMFA possesses one of only two surviving full-length statues of Caligula. It shows him as a statesman wearing a toga and the footwear of an aristocrat. The skillfully carved layers of drapery and finely modelled features indicate the high quality and idealized presentation of an official portrait image. Indeed, recent research suggests that it once stood in a shrine to the ruling family (the Julio-Claudians) near Rome.
34. VMFAAN_110204_577.JPG: The Etruscans "Etruscans as a nation were distinguished above all others by their devotion to religious observances." -- Livy, Founding of the City The origins of the Etruscans have been debated for more than 2,000 years. Most theories suggest that they were either immigrants to Italy (perhaps from Anatolia, part of modern Turkey) or an indigenous people, heirs of the Villanovan culture that dominated Italy from the 10th to 8th centuries BC. Today, Etruscan culture is known largely from archeological explorations (many of their elaborate tombs were painted and filled with grave goods) and the often hostile writings of Greeks and Romans. The most important Etruscan cities formed a loose confederation dominated by local oligarchs. The Etruscans were Rome's military rivals, but they also greatly influenced Roman culture (particularly its architecture, art, and religion). They lost their political independence to Rome by the 3rd century BC, and their culture had largely disappeared by the 1st century BC. Beginning in the 7th century BC, Etruscan artists were heavily influenced by Greek art, which they directly encountered in South Italy. Etruscan art, however, tends to be more stylized than Greek art and, at its best, displays an exuberance and liveliness often absent from both Greek and Roman art. Etruscan bronzes were widely admired and exported throughout the ancient world.
35. VMFAAN_110204_589.JPG: Etruscan Red-Figure Kalyx-Krater (Mixing Bowl), ca 370BC Depictions of battles against Amazons, a mythical tribe of warrior women, were popular throughout the ancient world, but this scene is unusual: here Amazons fight with satyrs, half-horse, half-human followers of the god Dionysos who often appear in Etruscan art. The scene may refer to Dionysos's defeat of the Amazons during his conquest of India. The Nazzano Painter is one of the finest Etruscan vase painters, to whom only ten vases have been attributed.
36. VMFAAN_110204_598.JPG: Etruscan Downspout with Woman's Face, late 6th century BC This figure's ropelike hair, almost-shaped eyes, slight smile, and intricately patterned dress are typical of archaic Etruscan art. The open trough at the back diverted rainwater downward, below the face.
37. VMFAAN_110204_629.JPG: Greek Black-Figure Amphora (Storage Vessel), ca 540 BC "Athena sprang quickly from the immortal head and stood shaking her sharp spear before aegis-bearing Zeus." -- Homeric Hymn to Athena, 28 The goddess Athena was miraculously born out of the head of Zeus, king of the gods. In the 7th century, the poet Hesiod wrote that Zeus swallowed his first consort, Metis, wisest of gods and men, because of a prophecy that she would bear a son who would overthrow him. Metis was already pregnant with Athena, who sprang fully grown and armed from Zeus's head. In many versions of the story, Zeus's headache is so severe that he asks the blacksmith god Hephaistos to split his skull open with an ax.
38. VMFAAN_110204_672.JPG: Ancient Sport: "When anyone is victorious by aid of toil, then it is that honey-voiced odes are a foundation for future fame, even a faithful witness to noble exploits." -- Pindar, Olympian Odes In the cities of both Greece and Rome, athletic practice was encouraged as a means of maintaining military fitness as well as an end in itself. Whether competing in the great pan-Hellenic games of the Greek world such as the Olympics or in the annual games at Rome such as the Ludi Romani and Ludi Apollinares (Games of Apollo), athletes strove to win glory for themselves and their city and to provide entertainment for the general population. The most prestigious and strenuous competition was the pentathlon, which consisted of three field events (the long jump, javelin throw, and discus throw), a short foot race, and wrestling. There were also combat events such as boxing as well as equestrian events, including horse races (in The Cloud, Aristophanes satirizes a son's addiction to the sport), two- and four-horse chariot races, and, depending on the fashion of the time, mule-cart races. In Greece, athlete practiced in the gymnasia, social spaces where they exercised naked, pursued their loved ones, and passed their time in conversation. The most famous gymnasia were the Academy and the Lyceum, which gave their names to the schools founded by the philosophers Plato and Aristotle.
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