Time and Cosmos in Greco-Roman Antiquity at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York City

Time and Cosmos in Greco-Roman Antiquity

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York City 

October 19, 2016 - April 23, 2017

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The exhibit space of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) in New York City  consists of two moderately-sized galleries. The ISAW is located a couple blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of  Art at 15 East 84th Street. What ought to be a classic illustration of a sapling wilting under the shadow of a mighty oak tree is not true at all. 

The ISAW is a research and graduate education institute of New York University. It mounts two important exhibitions each year and somehow manages to encompass whole civilizations or historical epochs in the confines of these two galleries.

In its latest exhibit, Time and the Cosmos in Greco-Roman Antiquity, ISAW has brought together an astonishing range of art works from museums throughout Europe and the United States. ISAW has no permanent collection of its own, but knows how to pick the best of the best.

I was especially impressed that a silver figurine from the treasure of Mâcon was loaned to ISAW from the British Museum. This is the Statuette of Tutela with Planetary Divinities, the introductory image of this review.

In 1764, a vast hoard of ancient silver and gold, mostly coins, was discovered in Mâcon in France. All but eight figurines and one silver plate were melted down for the face value of the bullion. The British Museum was able to purchase the exquisite Statuette of Tutela and seven others before they were consigned to the smelting furnace. 

As the name of the ISAW exhibit proclaims, the over-arching theme of the present exhibition is the biggest one imaginable: time.

Time is the absolute component of life: of our daily lives, of the march of history and ultimately of the nature of the universe. Everyone and everything exists in time. 

Time's importance should occasion no surprise. But people throughout history have not been able to agree about time anymore than tribal or national boundaries. 

Roman Calendar Inscription with Zodiac, 1st century A.D.

Most city states in ancient times had  civic and religious calendars and dating systems unique to themselves. For ancient Romans, time and history began with the founding of the city by Romulus (738 B.C. to us). The first Roman calendar was composed of only ten months and was a thorough mess. February was later added as the last month of the year, but was then squeezed to fit between January and March. 

It took Julius Caesar to straighten things out in 46 B.C. Caesar introduced a proper twelve month calendar, which unfortunately for him included the Ides of March. 

With just two galleries at their disposal, the ISAW curators wisely limited the exhibition to Greek and Roman civilization. But they do acknowledge the influence of ancient Egypt and the Babylonians, especially the latter on the rise of astrology which retained a powerful influence throughout ancient times. The ISAW exhibit brilliantly reveals a Classical world that was considerably less "classic" than we have been led to believe.

Roman Frieze showing Putti with Sundial, 140–160 A.D

The Greeks and Romans measured the course of the day using sundials, as is well known. However, one of the wonderfully strange objects on view in the ISAW exhibit is a small portable sun dial shaped like a ham! Historians surmise that the shape (like a Prosciutto ham) had an "eat, drink and be merry" connotation. It actually functioned, though the Greeks and Romans also used portable sundials that look like official time pieces by our standards.

Portable Universal Sundial, 1st–4th century A.D.

Many of the other works of art and artifacts displayed in Time and Cosmos seem alien to the image we have long held of the Greeks and Romans as founders of Western Civilization. And even some of the exhibit pieces that do conform to the conventional view of the Classical Age raise questions.

The superb mosaic from the Villa of Titus Siminius Stephanus in Pompeii likely depicts Plato's Academy with the sitting figure directly under the tree being Plato himself. Or it might depict the "seven sages." These pioneering thinkers included Thales of Miletus, the first "scientist" whose many accomplishments included predicting the solar eclipse of 585 B.C.Thales believed in the unity of nature whose phenomena could be explained without reliance on mythology.

Roman Mosaic Depicting the Seven Sages ("Plato's Academy"), from Pompeii

The ancient Greeks and Romans generally ignored the writings of Thales with his emphasis on scientific method. Astrology retained a strong grip on the minds of ancient people until the triumph of Christianity in the fourth century A.D. (and behind closed doors after that). The surviving art and artifacts from antiquity testify to the ceaseless efforts by people, great and small, to comprehend what was in store them, to prepare for and - if possible - to deflect "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

The ISAW has an intriguing stone object on display, a fragment of what is called a "parapegma." The museum text calls it a "precursor to the modern day almanac." On it were inscribed market days in a nine-day cycle and a peg could be inserted in notch holes to keep track. This prosaic use in turn was related to astronomical, meteorological and astrological lore attached to each of these days. 

Roman Parapegma, after 8 B.C.

It is easy enough to understand the day-to-day use of the parapegma, but what purpose was served by the beautifully carved "Altar" with Zodiacal Frieze and Heads of the Twelve Gods is hard to ascertain. It was mounted on a pedestal and may have been purely decorative. But we have no idea what - if anything - was placed in its center space. Perhaps a mirror for individuals to reflect on fate or some device for divination, but this remains a mystery.

"Altar" with Zodiacal Frieze and Heads of the Twelve Gods, 117–138 A.D.

The ISAW exhibit also presents a short visual "reconstruction" of the extraordinary Antikythera Mechanism. In 1900, a Greek sponge diver found fragments of what is now considered the first mechanical computer at an ancient shipwreck site. Named for the nearby island where it was found, the Antikythera Mechanism was a box containing bronze gears permitting complex calculations. Three external dials controlled the settings.

A century later, historians of science are still trying to figure out the workings of this amazing machine. The main purpose, as outlined by the ISAW, is clear. The Antikythera Mechanism can be "understood to be dedicated to astronomical phenomena and operates as a complex mechanical 'computer' which tracks the cycles of the Solar System."

The Antikythera Mechanism dates to 70 B.C., the final flourishing of ancient Greek scientific endeavor. Many of the works of art in the ISAW exhibit date from the "high noon" of the Roman Empire, during the second century A.D.

This brings to mind Edward Gibbon's famous remark about this period in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, the first volume of which was published in 1776:

If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.

Gibbon, a leading thinker of the Age of Reason, wrote his magisterial book entirely based on the surviving literature from ancient times. Gibbon knew about the religious cults of antiquity but very little archaeological evidence about them had surfaced by the time of his writing. As a result, Gibbon could find a kinship between the 1700's Enlightenment and the age of the Good Emperors.

One of the most beautiful, but troubling, works on display in Time and Cosmos dates to Gibbon's "most happy and prosperous" era. Statuette of Nemesis with Portrait Resembling the Empress Faustina I, eighteen inches in height, comes from the Getty Museum collection. It was one of the first exhibit objects to "catch" my eye in the ISAW exhibit, but the more I read and thought about it, the more questions it raised.

Statuette of Nemesis with Portrait Resembling the Empress Faustina I, 150 A.D.

Nemesis, the goddess of divine or "moral" retribution, is usually thought of in terms of delivering "just desserts" to arrogant or law-breaking individuals. This Nemesis, however, has the facial features of Faustina, the wife of the Roman emperor, Antoninus Pius, who ruled 138 to 161 A.D. 

Despite the placid countenance of Faustina/Nemesis, this statuette is one of menacing portent.The wings of Faustina/Nemesis exemplify swift justice, the wheel of destiny in her hand signifies control of present and future. The prostrate figure under the foot of the goddess is an enemy of Rome. 

Antoninus Pius ruled Rome during a comparatively peaceful period of the often violent Pax Romana. His predecessor, Hadrian, however, had attempted to impose the values of Greco-Roman civilization on the Jews of Palestine by building a temple to Jupiter in Jerusalem. Bitter memories of the Roman destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. were still very much alive. In 132, the revolt of Simon bar Kokhba challenged Hadrian's heedless policy, as well as the value system we see on display in the ISAW exhibit.

Nemesis, in the form of six Roman legions, eventually crushed Simon bar Kokhba and his rebels. Is there a connection between this statuette, discovered in Egypt, and the Jewish resistance to Greco-Roman civilization? Might the prostrate man under the heel of Faustina/Nemesis symbolize Simon bar Kokhba or someone else in Rome's eastern dominions who dared to think in different terms from the ruling elite?

We are unlikely to know the answer to this question. Indeed, it is a bit unfair to reach beyond the basic framework of Time and Cosmos to raise such an issue. There is so much here to think upon and ponder. Yet, it is the mark of a great museum exhibition that it sparks provocative thoughts such as these.

Time and Cosmos is ultimately concerned with "world view" - in ancient times and for all time. Just one more month remains to see this superb exhibit but the issues it addresses so brilliantly are truly "for the ages."

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Images courtesy of Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) and the British Museum

Introductory Image:                                                                                                         Statuette of Tutela with Planetary Divinities, from Mâcon, France, 150–220 AD. Silver with Gilding Dimensions: H. 13.9 cm; W. 6 cm; D. 4.2 cm. The British Museum. GR 1824,0424.1 © Trustees of the British Museum. Digital image courtesy of the  British Museum's Open Access Policy.

Roman Calendar Inscription (Menologium Rusticum Colotianum) with Zodiac, Festivals, and Agricultural Activities, found near the Palatine, Rome. 1st century A.D. Marble.H. 66.4 cm; W. 41.3 cm; D. 38.7 cm. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Inventory Number:2632 © Institute for the Study of the Ancient World / Guido Petruccioli, photographer

Frieze from a Roman Sarcophagus Representing Putti with Sundial. 140–160 A.D. H. 34.5 cm; W. 23 cm; D. 7.4 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Inventory Number:MA1341. Musée du Louvre, Paris, Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines  © RMN-Grand Palais / Hervé Lewandowski / Art Resource, NY

Portable Universal Sundial. Believed to have been discovered near Bratislava, 1st–4th century A.D.  Bronze. H. 6.4 cm; W. 6.1 cm; D. 2.5 cm Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. Inventory Number:51358 © Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford

Roman Mosaic Depicting the Seven Sages ("Plato's Academy"), from the Villa of Titus Siminius Stephanus, Pompeii. 1st century BC–1st century A.D. Stone Tesserae. H. 96 cm; W. 94 cm. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Inventory Number:124545 © Institute for the Study of the Ancient World / Guido Petruccioli, photographer

Roman Parapegma with Lunar Days, Market Days, and Planetary Weekdays, believed to be from Latium, Italy. After 8 B.C. Marble. H. 53.5 cm; W. 33 cm; D. 3 cm. Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. Inventory Number:2635 © Institute for the Study of the Ancient World / Guido Petruccioli, photographer

"Altar" with Zodiacal Frieze and Heads of the Twelve Gods, from Gabii, Latium, 117–138 AD. Marble. Diameter. 83.5 cm; D. 26.5 cm. Musée du Louvre, Paris. Inventory Number: MA666 Musée du Louvre, Paris, Département des Antiquités grecques, étrusques et romaines © RMN-Grand Palais / Hervé Lewandowski / Art Resource, NY

Statuette of Nemesis with Portrait Resembling the Empress Faustina I,  discovered in Egypt, 150 AD. Dolomitic Marble. H. 46.4 cm; W. 20.3 cm; D. 12.7 cm. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Villa Collection, Malibu, California. Inventory Number: 96.AA.43  Digital image courtesy of the Getty's Open Content Program. 

American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent at Philadelphia Museum of Art

American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent

Philadelphia Museum of Art

March 1, 2017 - May 14, 2017

Reviewed by Ed Voves

In the world of art, as in the course of everyday life, it is wise to expect the "unexpected." 

The latest blockbluster exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent, is a case in point. For once, this is not just the case of using name recognition to "sell" the show. Both Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent were true masters of watercolor painting. But neither artist played a pioneering role in America's enthusiasm for watercolor painting that began in 1866.

Before the Civil War, watercolor painting in America was deemed to be acceptable only for Sunday-afternoon artists and women. It was hardly  the "stuff" of Yankee manhood or the valor that  won the day at Gettysburg. 

The Union had waged  the Civil War with ruthless determination and technical expertise.  Once the shooting stopped, the expectation was high that these traits would carry over into other aspects of American society. The important role of technology should  have sparked a mania for photography, which had played a big role in the war. Likewise, the intense patriotism should have prompted a wave of battle paintings or works to honor the martyred Abraham Lincoln.

Nothing of the kind happened - at least not in 1866. Instead, a group of little known artists launched what soon became a nation-wide mania  for watercolor painting and collecting.

The founders of the American watercolor revolution were hardly household names - then or now.  Samuel Colman, Gilbert Burling, William Craig and William Hart were certainly proficient artists. The exhibit displays works by all, with the exception of Burling. These painters were heavily indebted to the British watercolor tradition and to the writings of its leading theorist, John Ruskin. What they lacked in the way of originality, these pioneers compensated for with persuasive charm and crusading zeal.

Fidelia Bridges, Milkweeds, 1876

The influence of Ruskin on American watercolor painting is exemplified by the work of Fidelia Bridges, (1834-1923). A New England artist who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Art, Bridges painted "truth to nature" watercolors of such outstanding merit that she could not be denied a prominent place in the burgeoning watercolor movement - despite being a woman.

The new popularity of watercolor quickly led to the organization of a professional society. Colman was elected president of the American Watercolor Society in 1866. A year later, the organization mounted a successful show at the National Academy of Design, which became an annual event of great popularity. 

Soon first-rank artists like John LaFarge were answering the call to exhibit at the AWS shows in New York City. Sales revenue - the greatest inducement of all - kept pace with Colman's congenial, alliance-building leadership. 

In 1873, the greatest war artist of the Civil War, Winslow Homer "discovered" watercolor. Only the year before, Homer had painted his hugely popular tribute to American children, Snap the Whip, in oils. Snap the Whip is a nostalgic work of art. Wistful reflection on pre-industrial America was a keynote of many works by AWS painters, too.

This backward-glance is beautifully represented in the Philadelphia Museum exhibit by Edwin Austin Abbey's The Two Sisters. The two protagonists of this astonishing watercolor are dressed in  the early nineteenth century Federal period style. Abbey combined translucent watercolor and opaque gouache to create a work that is suffused with subtle color. 

Edwin Austin Abbey, The Two Sisters, 1882

This vibrant work of art, on special loan from Yale, is so delicate and light-sensitive that it is kept behind a curtain at the exhibit except when being viewed for very short periods by visitors. The damaging effect of light on watercolors can only be thwarted by extreme care. Because of this, opportunity to take gallery photographs was limited at the press preview.

Abbey's effective use of translucent and opaque watercolor was rivaled by another AWS stalwart, Thomas Moran (1837‑1926). Born in England, Moran was a great admirer of J.M.W. Turner, sometime to such a degree that it is difficult to distinguish their works. Moran took a lead from the hardy, well-traveled Turner and brought his watercolor box along  on an expedition to the American West soon after the Civil War. 

Thomas Moran, Big Springs in Yellowstone Park, 1872

In a way, Moran's Big Springs in Yellowstone Park, 1872, recorded a frontier that was fast disappearing, just as Abbey's genteel Federal period had vanished. Moran's depictions of the West, both in watercolor and in oil, played a major role in promoting the idea of National Parks to preserve the natural beauty of America. Moran also pointed the way for Winslow Homer to make his mark in watercolor.

Homer, "the always unexpected Mr. Homer" as a reviewer called him, followed the lead of both Abbey and Moran. He painted both pensive young women and barefoot country boys and the frontier-like conditions of Maine and the Adirondack Mountains in New York. But his style was all his own and it was not long before he was recognized as America's premier painter in watercolor.

Winslow Homer, Building a Smudge, 1891

Not all the reviews of Homer's work were glowing. Homer did not take kindly to negative criticism in the proliferating journals like Scribner's Monthly. Some years, he refused to send any work to the AWS shows. Instead, he would paddle-off into the woods of New York and New England, building a "smudge" to keep the vociferous flies at bay - along with the art critics.

Other years, Homer would seek artistic refuge on the North Sea coast of England, where he painted watercolors of stalwart fisher folk, or go to the tropics where he painted the luminous A Garden in Nassau in 1885 .            

Winslow Homer, A Garden in Nassau, 1885

Homer's facility in every form of watercolor and in every setting was matched by John Singer Sargent. Twenty-years younger than Homer, Sargent joined the exhibiting ranks of the watercolor fellowship somewhat late in his career, though he had always painted privately in the medium. 

Weary of the "grind" of society portrait painting in England, Sargent "went public" in 1904, just a few years before the still vigorous Homer died in 1910. One of Homer's last watercolors, Diamond Shoal, proves that he was still at the top of his form in his last years. 

Winslow Homer, Diamond Shoal, 1905

Had Homer not died in 1910, a "duel" in watercolors with Sargent might well have ensued. The Philadelphia exhibit devotes an entire gallery to a "compare and contrast" examination of the watercolors of Homer and Sargent. It is very intriguing but there is no record that either artist viewed their work in such a competitive spirit. It was much more of a case of "passing the torch" of artistic leadership from one master to another.

Sargent did more than keep the golden age of American watercolor going into the twentieth century. His bold use of translucent watercolor to explore the ever-changing quality of light raised the medium to a new, almost miraculous, height of achievement.

John Singer Sargent, Spanish Fountain, 1912

It is only fitting, when mentioning superlative achievement, to acknowledge the curator of this fabulous exhibit, Kathleen Foster. One of the greatest contemporary authorities on American art, Dr. Foster conceived and organized American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent. She wrote the text of the exhibit catalog in its entirety, a most impressive achievement. Most exhibit books are written by a team of scholars. 

Dr. Foster's achievement is definitive not merely for the depth of her research but also its wide-ranging field of study. The "Golden Age" of American watercolor embraced the  Aesthetic Movement of the 1870s, design for commercial enterprises like the celebrated Rookwood Pottery, the "house beautiful" ideal and the American mural movement. All of these strands are woven into an exhibit which will not soon be topped for its authoritative scholarship and its sheer, soul-restoring beauty. 

The American watercolor movement coincided with the rise of Impressionism in France. This can create a bit of confusion for non-experts on American art. Several early figures of American watercolor painting were considered "Impressionists" but these artists were influenced by the thriving Munich school of painting rather than by Claude Monet and his confrères. The French Impressionists did not favor watercolor to any significant degree.  

Childe Hassam, Boulevard at Night, Paris, 1889

Eventually Childe Hassam, an American Impressionist and an accomplished watercolor painter, united the two schools of art with outstanding works in watercolor.

American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent concludes with an insightful look at the science of watercolor.  We are reminded that the achievements of the age of Homer and Sargent were also based upon a material revolution in watercolor, developing from hard brittle cakes to disposable tubes of color. 

Watercolor Box belonging to Winslow Homer, 1900‑1910

John Singer Sargent died in 1925, the end point of this wonderful exhibit. Vast changes were in store for American art in the years following 1925 - and for American society. 

Watercolor, however, has retained its popular appeal with the public and with professional artists alike. Watercolor became an American Art just as Baseball became America's game. Rising from English roots, watercolor was utilized in the post-Civil War years to create a truly national art form. Since then, watercolor has never gone "out-of-style" in America, however much the styles of art change and evolve.

***
Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Images Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Yale University Art Gallery, Yale Open Access policy, for Edwin Austin Abbey's The Two Sisters, 1882

Introductory Image: American Watercolor in the Age of Homer and Sargent, 2017 (cover) Image credit: Philadelphia Museum of Art 

Fidelia Bridges (American, 1834‑1923) Milkweeds, 1876. Watercolor on paper, Sheet: 17 1/4 × 13 inches. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Museum of Art, Utica, New York, Proctor Collection

Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852–1911) The Two Sisters, 1882. Watercolor and gouache over graphite underdrawing, sight in frame: 59.2 x 89.5 cm (23 5/16 x 35 1/4 in.) Yale University Art Gallery, The Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Collection. 1946.130

Thomas Moran, (American, born England, 1837-1926) Big Springs in Yellowstone Park, 1872. Watercolor and opaque watercolor on paper, 9 1/4 × 19 1/4 inches. Private Collection

Winslow Homer (American, 1836‑1910) Building a Smudge, 1891. Watercolor over graphite, with scraping, on wove paper, Sheet: 13 3/4 × 20 9/16 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 125th Anniversary Acquisition. Gift of Ann R. Stokes, 2002.

Winslow Homer (American, 1836‑1910) A Garden in Nassau, 1885. Watercolor and opaque watercolor over graphite, with blotting and scraping, on textured cream wove paper, Image: 14 1/2 × 21 inches. Terra Foundation for American Art, Daniel J. Terra Collection.

Winslow Homer (American, 1836‑1910) Diamond Shoal, 1905. Watercolor and graphite on paper, Sheet: 14 × 21 7/8 inches. Private Collection.

John Singer Sargent (American, active London, Florence, and Paris, 1856‑1925) Spanish Fountain,1912. Watercolor and graphite on white wove paper, 21 × 13 3/4 inches. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1915.

Childe Hassam (American, 1859‑1935) Boulevard at Night, Paris, 1889. Watercolor on paper, 8 × 12 inches. Private Collection

Watercolor Box belonging to Winslow Homer, 1900‑1910. Manufactured by Winsor & Newton, London, founded 1832. Watercolor pigments and metal, 8 1/8 × 8 1/4 inches. Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Gift of the Homer Family.

A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece 700 BC – 200 AD at the Onassis Cultural Center New York City

A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece 700 BC – 200 AD 

 

Onassis Cultural Center New York City

March 9 – June 24, 2017 

Reviewed by Ed Voves

"Know thyself." "Gnothi seauton" (γνῶθι σεαυτόν).  This maxim, inscribed in the forecourt of the Temple of Delphi, proclaims the philosophical aspirations of the ancient Greeks.
Intellectual exploration did not entirely define the lives of the Greeks - any more than it does the lives of modern-day individuals. A fascinating exhibition at the Onassis Cultural Center in New York City examines Greek civilization from a different vantage point: emotion. 
    
A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece 700 BC – 200 AD brings a wide-ranging array of works of art and artifacts to the mid-town Manhattan gallery of the Onassis Center. 

                Installation view of A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece, 700 BC – 200 AD       Photograph © Joseph Coscia, Jr.

Most of the exhibition objects are loans from Greek museums and chart the evolving attitudes of the ancient Greeks to the interplay of emotions. Other works come from Greek-speaking cities in southern Italy or are Roman-era copies of statues made by famous artists of the Greek past.

In a brilliant move, the curators of A World of Emotions created a grouping of statues as was often done in antiquity. The statue in the foreground, Pothos, is the daimone or spirit of yearning. Pothos is about to be hit by an arrow from the bow of Eros, the god of love.

Ed Voves Photo (2017), Roman-era Statues of Pothos (left) and Eros, 2nd century AD

This splendid representation of Eros is believed to be a copy, made about 70 years after Christ, of a bronze by the master sculptor, Lysippos who lived in fourth century BC. It was found at a different site in Rome than the place where Pothos was unearthed. Yet, the grouping of these two works is a masterful interpretation of the more playful aspects of emotion in the Greek world.

Emotion among the Greek, or Hellenes as they called themselves, was more often blood-chilling than heart-warming. Indeed, the most significant work in all of Greek literature begins with an evocation of unrestrained anger.

The first word of Homer's Iliad is menin, rage. This uncontrollable anger, the wraith of Achilles, resounded throughout antiquity. From Alexander the Great's heedless murder of his friend, Cleitus, who had saved his life in battle, to curse tablets which were commonly used in ancient vendettas, the Greeks often strayed from the path of reason.

Fortunately, Greek life and art was  balanced  by the practice of more positive traits and virtues.  Upon entering the A World of Emotions exhibit, visitors are greeted two marble statues from the sixth century B.C. known as Kourai. These two sculptures from the Archaic era preceding the Persian Wars exude emotional well-being.

Ed Voves Photo (2017), Gallery view of A World of Emotions

For me, it was like meeting old friends. Last autumn, I had seen the heroically nude kouros and the kore, with her dangling braids, at a spectacular exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C. I had visited The Greeks: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great too late in the exhibit's run to post a review. Yet, here were the kouros and kore to welcome me to A World of Emotions!

Greek sculpture was influenced by the statues which Greek merchants and mercenary soldiers saw in Egypt, beginning around 850 BC. The enigmatic smile of the kourai has counterparts in Egyptian sculpture and amazingly appears on statues at medieval cathedrals like Chartres in France and Magdeburg in Germany.

For the Greeks, the "Archaic" smile denotes self-awareness and a sense of connection with the gods. We can see a growing confidence on the face of this kouros, which dates to 510 to 500 BC, exactly the years when democracy in Athens was gaining political favor. By contrast, the great kouros in the Metropolitan Museum presents a more determined, yet more fearful, visage. The Met's kouros dates to 580 BC and was used as a monument for a young aristocrat's grave. That era, the early sixth century,was a time when ruthless oligarchic power and debt-slavery were ripping Athenian society apart. 

Statue of a Kouros, ca. 500 BC, © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports,   

Photo by Kostas Xenikakis

By the time that this beaming, confident kouros was created, Greek democracy was on the rise.

Maybe I am just old-fashioned but I favor Archaic-era statues over the later Classical period. I especially love the fact that they were painted with garish colors, thereby confounding the theories of Age of Reason scholars who praised them for their "pure" natural color. Traces of dark red can easily be seen in the hair of the kore on view in the exhibition. The kore's necklace, bracelet and earrings were painted blue and a crown of gilded copper-alloy flowers once graced her head.

Placed on a pedestal on the Acropolis, the beautiful, decorative kore assumed the "proper" place for women ordained by the aggressively male society of ancient Greece. A women who ventured beyond the role of homemaker or hetaerae prostitute risked being viewed as a latter-day Medea, the mythological character who rebelled against male oppression and betrayal. 

Many of the most fascinating works of art in the exhibit relate to women, so often excluded from a political role or even an artistic career in Greek society. A brilliant fresco from the House of the Tragic Poet in Pompeii illustrates depicts the Sacrifice of Iphigeneia. In this story from the Trojan War cycle. Agamemnon must sacrifice his beloved daughter, Iphigeneia, to placate the gods or his stalled armada will not be able to sail to attack Troy.

                              

Wall Painting with Scene from the Sacrifice of Iphigeneia, ca. 62 AD 

© Archeological Museum of Naples

Evidently, this outrageously unjust act was too much for even the Greeks to tolerate. Later versions of the story changed the ending, with the goddess Artemis bringing a deer to be slaughtered in place of the innocent Iphigeneia. This recalls the similar, happy, conclusion of the story of Abraham and Isaac in the Old Testament. 

It is doubtful that the change in the story of Iphigeneia was influenced by the Hebrew scriptures. More likely, it reflected the effect of the endless wars which plagued the Greek world. By the time that this fresco was painted in Pompeii, only a few short years before the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD, peace had been imposed by the Romans. Most Greeks were glad of it. The reprieve of Iphigeneia, pictured here, is in keeping with the Pax Romana but not of the blood-thirsty spirit of the Greeks earlier in their history.

To mourn for those slain in warfare was in fact one of the few public roles of women in Greek society. They certainly had plenty of occasion to do so. 

Amphora with Mourning Scene, ca. 530 BC, © Vatican Museum  

The poignant and timeless image on this black-figure painted Amphora was painted around 530 BC. This was the era when Sparta gained military ascendancy over much of Greece. The woman mourning the dead warrior is most likely Eos, or Dawn, grabbing a hank of her hair as she grieves for her son, a victim of the wrathful Achilles at Troy. 

But separating mythology from human actions in Greek history is not always easy. The woman shown here might well have symbolized a mother from Argos convulsed in grief after the Spartan victory in the Battle of Champions in 546 BC. Or the scene could have occurred two centuries later following the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC when the armies of Athens and Thebes were decimated by King Philip of Macedon and his Achilles-like son, Alexander. There were lots of battles, plenty of sons to mourn.

The motivations that impelled the Greeks to engage in self-destructive wars and other (to us) irrational acts were actually based on a strict code of ethical conduct. The catalog to A World of Emotions has several compelling essays which provide crucial insights into the psychology and social factors that governed Greek behavior. Professor Angelos Chaniotis, the lead scholar of the curatorial team, summarizes these insights.  

A public life free of emotions has never existed, in any past society... As regards ancient Greece, certain features of Greek society and culture enhanced the part played by emotions in public life: the spirit of competition (agon) that characterized Greek culture, the importance of family and the duties connected with it - especially the duty to avenge an act of injustice or an insult against a relative or an ancestor - social values, such as an advanced sense of honor and shame, and the obligation to show gratitude for a favor and repay it (charis).

Along with place of emotion in public life, there was what another of the exhibit scholars, Anthi Dipla, calls the "private spaces of emotions." Here the differences between ancient and modern world views largely disappear. For in these personal, interior realms, care, concern and grief for spouses, children, soul mates, even pets were addressed. 

Greek parents often erected a statue to a child, happily saved from disease, to thank the gods for the young one's preservation. There is one of these in the exhibition, dating to the third century BC. The statue of a little boy holding a goose was dedicated in the sanctuary of the river god, Kephisos, in central Greece. 

Ed Voves Photo (2017), Statue of a Boy with a Goose, 3rd century BC (detail) 

Perhaps the boy was saved from drowning. Whatever the case, the ability with which the sculptor has captured the smiling boy's sense of well-being is little short of a miracle of art.

More often, parents would have to erect funeral stele with heartbroken inscriptions. A particularly poignant one is on view in World of Emotions, which records the devastated feelings of parents when their only daughter, named Zoe (the Greek word for life), died,while delivering a still-born baby around 200 AD.

Ed Voves Photo (2017), Gallery view showing steles of Kalliteles (left) and Polyeuktos

Not far from the monument to Zoe are other memorial steles, this time with sculpted depictions of deceased young boys. At the foot of each is a leaping, playful dog. I stood before these statues, of Kalliteles and Polyeuktos, and briefly lost track of time. I was still grappling with the impact of reading the translation of Zoe's memorial. Trying 

to focus on the historical and aesthetic details of these poignant monuments was difficult, if not impossible.

The emotions, the raw feelings displayed in the Onassis Center gallery, are what matter. 

It is with a lingering sense of shock that one realizes that these ancient emotions still resonate today. We observe the skillful ways that Greek artists evoked a feeling or depicted a sentiment. But such technical details are only a part of the World of Emotions exhibit.

What is really occurring at the Onassis Center, I believe, is a psychic or spiritual "event."  The emotions sculpted in marble or painted on clay have passed beyond the sphere of art criticism and have attained a form of immortality. This is what is displayed on the walls of the Onassis Center, ingrained into something harder and more lasting than stone.

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Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Introductory Image:   

Head of Penthesilea Marble, Roman copy of a Hellenistic original. Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, inv. no. BS 214 © Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig. Courtesy of Onassis Cultural Center, New York.

Installation view of A World of Emotions: Ancient Greece, 700 BC – 200 AD. Photograph © Joseph Coscia, Jr., 2017 Courtesy of Onassis Cultural Center, New York.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017),  Roman-era Statues of Pothos and Eros, 2^nd century AD. Exhibit at the Onassis Cultural Center, New York City, March 9 to June 24, 2017.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017),  Gallery View of the A World of Emotions Exhibit at the Onassis Cultural Center, New York City, March 9 to June 24, 2017.

Statue of a Kouros, Marble, ca. 500 BC, from the Sanctuary of Apollo at Ptoos. National Archaeological Museum, Athens, inv. no. 20 © Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports–Archaeological Receipts Fund, Photography Kostas Xenikakis  Courtesy of Onassis Cultural Center, New York.

Painting with Scene from the Sacrifice of Iphigeneia Fresco on plaster, ca. 62 AD, from Pompeii. Casa del Poeta Tragico Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, inv. no. 9112 © Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli / Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo Courtesy of Onassis Cultural Center, New York.

Amphora with Mourning Scene Terracotta, black-figure, ca. 530 BC, from Vulci. Musei Vaticani, inv. no. 16589, © Foto Musei Vaticani  Courtesy of Onassis Cultural Center, New York.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Statue of a Boy with a Goose, 3^rd Century BC (detail) from the collection of the National Archeological Museum, Athens. Exhibit at the Onassis Cultural Center, New York City, March 9 to June 24, 2017.

Ed Voves, Photo (2017), Gallery view of World of Emotion, showing steles of Kalliteles and Polyeuktos. Exhibit at the Onassis Cultural Center, New York City, March 9 to June 24, 2017.

Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden: The Collections of Count Tessin at the Morgan Library and Museum

            

    

Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden:

The Collections of Count Tessin

Morgan Library and  Museum, New York City

February 3 through May 14, 2017

Reviewed by Ed Voves

The eighteenth century has come back to life in a splendid exhibition at the Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. Focusing on a special loan from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden, visitors to the Morgan are enabled to grasp the importance of the gentleman connoisseur as the arbiter of the 1700's art scene.

Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden showcases the collections of eighteenth century oil paintings and Old Master drawings and prints which Count Carl Gustaf Tessin assembled during the 1730's and 1740's. Count Tessin then sold these impressive works of art to the royal family of Sweden. When Sweden's government opened a national museum of art in the nineteenth century, the Tessinsamlingen filled the galleries of the new facility with many of its finest works of art.

During the 1700's, Europe's Age of Enlightenment took hold in the minds of intellectuals like Carl Gustaf Tessin (1696-1770). As a young man, Tessin traveled throughout Western Europe but it was in France, which he visited on four occasions, that he found the greatest inspiration. In 1739, he returned to France as his nation's ambassador with the mission to secure French help to revive Sweden's dwindling political and economic power. Tessin expanded his diplomatic brief to purchase an array of art works to promote a cultural renaissance in Sweden.

This was not just a public-spirited endeavor. Tessin amassed his collection so that he would become a latter-day Medici. From his father, he had inherited the rank of surintendant or surveyor of the Swedish royal palace. Now, as Sweden's emissary to Versailles and a devoted patron of the arts, he could make his own mark. In the portrait he commissioned while in France, we see him surrounded by all the trappings of the realm of high culture.

Jacques-André-Joseph Aved, Count Carl Gustaf Tessin, 1740

Tessin's portrait supplies one of the more humorous elements in the exhibit. Tessin was Sweden's "unofficial" ambassador to France and, perhaps to make more of an impression, spent lavishly, dipping into his own resources. When it came to having his portrait painted, Tessin tried to save money by picking a more affordable artist, Jacques-André-Joseph Aved (1702–1766), rather than one of the "grand manner" masters like Hyacinth Rigaud.

Aved succeeded in presenting Tessin as a man of the Enlightenment, carelessly dressed but absorbed in his intellectual pursuits. But the painting sessions dragged on so long that Tessin's finances were just as strained as if he had commissioned Rigaud.

Tessin was indeed an Enlightenment intellectual. If not a philosophe of the caliber of Voltaire, he had a discerning intellect and the gift for cultivating the best artists and scholars of his time. He met the brilliant, ill-fated Watteau on a early trip to France and later added a number of Watteau's superb sketches to his collection, including this appealing  study of a young woman's head from four different angles.

Antoine Watteau, Four Studies of a Young Woman's Head, ca. 1720

Tessin also displayed the good taste and even better sense of befriending the long-lived master of genre painting, Jean Siméon Chardin (French, 1699–1779). Tessin purchased several of Chardin's works, including The Morning Toilette, the introductory work of art for this review. 

The Morning Toilette is one of the masterpieces of this wonderful artist, whom Kenneth Clark regarded as the "greatest painter of mid-eighteenth century France." The Morning Toilette was selected as an illustration for Civilization and it is worth quoting Clark's astute observation about Chardin:

Chardin's pictures show that the qualities immortalized in verse by La Fontaine and Moliere - good sense, a good heart, an approach to human relationships both simple and delicate - survived into the mid-eighteenth century...

It is significant that Clark noted qualities connecting Chardin to cultural masters of the seventeenth century. Tessin, as we shall see, possessed the same ability to grasp the merit of works of art from the 1600's. But Tessin was also an eighteenth century man of affairs. The oil paintings in which he took the greatest pride in collecting were not works by Chardin but "eye candy" by masters of the Rococo style like François Boucher.

Boucher (1703–1770) created a sensation at the Salon of 1740 with his mythology-themed, The Triumph of Venus. Tessin simply had to have it, even though his finances were starting to suffer, and it was the toast of his collection when he returned to Sweden in 1742. 

François Boucher, The Triumph of Venus, 1740

The Triumph of Venus is a technically accomplished painting, recalling Botticelli's Birth of Venus. It, however, is almost completely devoid of "good sense, a good heart, an approach to human relationships both simple and delicate." 

Of course, taste in art changes over the centuries. The eroticism of this painting must have seemed potent indeed to Count Tessin and his colleagues back in Stockholm. Triumph anchors the exhibit at the Morgan, and, initially at least, exerts a striking presence in the gallery. But the longer one studies Boucher's magnum opus the more unappealing it becomes, like a rich dessert after a heavy meal.

 Gallery view of Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden at the Morgan Library

Boucher's genre scene, The Milliner, is a much more compelling work. It evokes to perfection the ideal of life in France during the 1700's, le douceur de vivre. Yet the effect is the same as with The Triumph of Venus. There is simply too much sweetness in this picture when the lives of the majority of the French people were marked by grinding toil and the loss of loved ones in the endless, futile wars of the age.

François Boucher, The Milliner, 1746

In 1749, only a few years after returning home, Tessin was forced to sell most of his paintings, including The Triumph of Venus, to King Frederik. As surintendant of the palace, Tessin would have had ready access to his former collection, a measure of compensation.

Tessin would have been better advised to spend his money on less glamorous, less pricey purchases. To his credit, when opportunity arose to buy works of truly enduring value, Tessin did not hesitate. This occurred in 1741 with the auction of the vast collection of drawings owned by Pierre Crozat, who had been Watteau's great patron.

It is these works by Durer, Rembrandt, Watteau and others that are truly treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden. 

Rembrandt is represented by an impressive array of works ranging from a heart warming study of a woman teaching a child to walk to a vigorously sketched depiction of Three Thatched Cottages by a Road. This country scene, free of allegorical references, could be displayed next to a landscape drawing by Vincent van Gogh - to their mutual advantage.

Rembrandt, Three Thatched Cottages by a Road, ca. 1640,

The quality and diversity of the works on paper collected by Count Tessin are astonishing. Drawings in graphite, charcoal, ink, chalk, pastel and the "pencil" of watercolor demonstrate the range of accomplishment of seventeenth century artists that is often obscured by the mighty achievements in oil painting by titans from Caravaggio to Vermeer. 

Conversely, the ability in drawing by the eighteenth century artists favored by Tessin is also notable. Watteau's exceptional facility in sketching needs little comment here. A lesser known contemporary of Watteau, Antoine Coypel (1661-1722) is represented by a portrait sketch of a young woman model, so lively, so sparkling with intelligence that her penetrating gaze literally drew my attention from across the gallery at the Morgan.

Antoine Coypel,Young Woman, En Face, c. 1690's.

This outstanding portrait sketch was one of a series of studies. From these, Coypel could select  the head of the Virgin Mary or of Venus, depending on the subject of his current painting. Coypel was a "history" painter, for which one should read "allegory." There are none of his oil paintings in the Morgan exhibit. This is just as well, for his works in oil are didactic and overwrought. But with this portrait of a young woman, created with chalk and pastel, Coypel succeeded brilliantly. 

Why the visual arts of the Age of Reason were so marked by the glaring contrast between acutely perceptive sketching and frivolous, saccharine painting is one of the mysteries of the Enlightenment. 

That Tessin could dip into his dwindling resources to purchase one of Durer's supreme masterpieces, Portrait of a Young Woman with Braided Hair, is, however, a testament to his passion for art. 

Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of a Young Woman with Braided Hair,1515

Surveying the incredible range of his collection, one gets the sense that these works of art held a deeper meaning for Tessin than merely serving as mementos of his travels. Rather, l think these paintings and sketches were surrogates for the relics or devotional art works that Tessin would have acquired had he traveled about Europe a century or two earlier. 

By 1700, pilgrimages to Christian shrines were being replaced by the Grand Tour. Europe in the eighteenth century was entering a secular age, but idealists like Tessin were still searching for nobility, still looking for meaning and for works of art to express this yearning. 

Antoine Coypel, who was a cultural theorist as well as an artist, urged his fellow artists to undertake this spiritual quest as well. Painters, Coypel wrote should "express those sentiments and movements of the soul which rhetoric teaches are necessary if we wish to be heard by all the nations of the earth."

Rembrandt, Study for the Figure of Esther in The Great Jewish Bride,1635

                                                
Count Tessin continued his impressive diplomatic career upon returning to Sweden, as well as becoming the leader of the Riksdag, Sweden's parliament. Tessin advanced to the rank of President of the Chancellery or prime minister, which he held from 1746 to 1752, and served as tutor to the heir to the throne. 

Tessin's brilliant career came to a sudden halt when he tried to preserve the Riksdag's independence from royal control. He retired to his estates and died in 1770. The prince he tutored absorbed Tessin's passion for the arts but not his belief in political liberty.The year after Tessin died, Gustavus III launched a reign marked by cultural patronage and authoritarian politics. Gustavus was assassinated at a masked ball in 1792 as the radical spirit of the French Revolution reached northward to Sweden.

Tessin's artistic legacy can be witnessed in the outstanding exhibit at the Morgan. It is a testament to the cultural contribution that a single, enlightened human being can achieve. Three centuries later, the "sentiments and movements of the soul" of Count Carl Gustaf Tessin are still making their presence felt.

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Text: Copyright of Ed Voves, all rights reserved 

Introductory Image:                                                                                                         Jean Siméon Chardin (French, 1699–1779), The Morning Toilette, 1740–41, Oil on canvas, 49 x 39 cm. (unframed). Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin Collection. NM 782 Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum     

Jacques-André-Joseph Aved, (French, 1702–1766) Count Carl Gustaf Tessin, 1740. Oil on canvas, 149 x 116 cm. (unframed).Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin collection, NM 5535 Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum     

Antoine Watteau (French, 1684-1721) Four Studies of a Young Woman's Head, ca. 1720. Red, black and white chalk on buff paper, 55 x 42 cm. (mounted). Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin collection, NMH 2836/1863 Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum

François Boucher (French, 1703–1770) The Triumph of Venus, 1740. Oil on canvas, 130 x 162 cm. (unframed).Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin collection, NM 770 Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum 
    
Ed Voves (2016), Gallery view of Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden:
The Collections of Count Tessin, showing The Triumph of Venus by François Boucher, 1740.

François Boucher (French, 1703–1770) The Milliner, 1746. Oil on canvas, 64 x 53 cm. (unframed). Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin collection, NM 772 Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum    

Rembrandt (Dutch, 1606–1669) Three Thatched Cottages by a Road, ca. 1640, Pen and brown ink and wash, with touches of white heightening, 42 x 55 cm. (mounted). Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin Collection. NMH 2087/1863 Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum 

Antoine Coypel (French, 1661-1722) Young Woman, En Face, c. 1690's. Black, red and white chalk and pink pastel, on brown paper, 34.7 x 24.5 cm. (unframed). Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin collection, NMH 2854/1863 

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) Portrait of a Young Woman with Braided Hair, 1515. Black chalk and charcoal on brownish paper. Laid down. Framing line in black ink. Fold. 65 x 50 cm. (mounted). Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin collection. NMH 1855/186 Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum

Rembrandt (Dutch, 1606–1669), Study for the Figure of Esther in The Great Jewish Bride, 1635, pen and gray-brown and dark brown ink, brown and gray wash, on beige paper. 55 x 42 cm. (mounted). Nationalmuseum of Sweden, Tessin collection. NMH 1992/1863 Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum