Lekythos in the Canellopoulos Museum

by Ancient Greek ArtArtGreek ArtMuseumsPotteryStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
White-Ground Lekythos, 440-430 BC, Terracotta, H. 25,5 cm, Canellopoulos Museum, Athens, Greece https://camu.gr/en/item/likythos/

Intended as a grave gift, this beautiful, white-ground Lekythos in the Canellopoulos Museum is a distinctive 5th century type of Athenian vessel. According to Maria S. Brouscari… the composition presented on the pot’s body, features, a tall, narrow stele with three steps, decorated with fillets, one at the top of the stele and one with its ends hanging over the top step, from which hang also two thin cords. To the left of the stele, a kneeling woman mourns. With her left hand she strikes her head, while her right is outstretched in a gesture of despair. To the right of the stele the dead stands motionless: a young man, fully clad in a deep purple garment, leaving only the head uncovered. His hair is rendered with a dilute black paint. The decoration of the Canellopoulos Museum Lekythos is typical of scenes connected with funerary rituals and can give us some insight into ancient Athenian funerary practices and ideas about death. https://camu.gr/en/item/likythos/

The Athenian, white-ground Lekythos, developed during the Classical period (5th-4th centuries BC), when Athenian potters began to cover the natural reddish color of their pottery with clay that turned white when fired. These small in size oil containers were used in funerary rituals in a number of different ways. They were, for example, burned with the body in cremations, used for pouring oil libations on the body or the grave site, and as offerings, were left at or in a burial. The great majority of these vessels have been found in and around graves, in Attica. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103VMY

When I look at the Lekythos in the Canellopoulos Museum, I think of Simonides of Ceos. His poetry, widely admired for its beauty, precision, and emotional depth, befits the funerary composition of the white-ground Lekythos in the Athenian Museum…

Fragment 520: ἀνθρώπων ὀλίγον μὲν / κάρτος, ἄπρακτοι δὲ μεληδόνες,  / αἰῶνι δ᾽ ἐν παύρωι πόνος ἀμφὶ πόνωι· / ὁ δ᾽ ἄφυκτος ὁμῶς ἐπικρέμαται θάνατος· / είνου γὰρ ἴσον λάχον μέρος οἵ τ᾽ ἀγαθοὶ / ὅστις τε κακός. – Των ανθρώπων λιγοστή η δύναμη κι άκαρπο ό,τι φροντίζουν πιο πολύ· στη σύντομη ζωή τους η μια στεναχώρια ακολουθεί την άλλη. Αναπόδραστος ο θάνατος ζυγιάζεται από πάνω τους χωρίς διάκριση· ευγενείς και ταπεινοί, όλοι έχουν μπροστά τους την ίδια μοίρα. (Translated by I. N. Kazazis) – Little is the strength of men and fruitless what they care most for; in their short life one sorrow follows another. Death, inescapable, weighs upon them without distinction; noble and humble, all face the same fate. https://www.greek-lan guage.gr/digitalResources/ancient_greek/anthology/poetry/browse.html?text_id=431

Fragment 521: ἄνθρωπος ἐὼν μή ποτε φάσηις ὅ τι γίνεται αὔριον, / μηδ᾽ ἄνδρα ἰδὼν ὄλβιον ὅσσον χρόνον ἔσσεται· / ὠκεῖα γὰρ οὐδὲ τανυπτερύγου μυίας / οὕτως ἁ μετάστασις. – Είσαι άνθρωπος, και γι᾽ αυτό ποτέ μην πεις τί μέλλει αύριο να συμβεί, μήτε να προβλέψεις, σαν δεις κανέναν να ευτυχεί, πόσον καιρό θα κρατήσει αυτό. Γιατί τόσο γοργό σαν την αλλαγή της μοίρας δεν είναι ούτε το φτερούγισμα της μακρόφτερης μύγας. (Translated by I. N. Kazazis) – You are only human, so, never  tell what will happen tomorrow, do not predict, if you see someone happy, how long his happiness will last. Because fate changes faster and swifter than the  fluttering of the long-flying fly. https://www.greek-language.gr/digitalResources/ancient_greek/anthology/poetry/browse.html?text_id=432

Fragment 522: πάντα γὰρ μίαν ἱκνεῖται δασπλῆτα Χάρυβδιν, αἱ μεγάλαι τ᾽ ἀρεταὶ καὶ ὁ πλοῦτος. – Γιατί όλα τα πράγματα καταλήγουν στην ίδια φριχτή Χάρυβδη, κι οι μεγάλες επιτυχίες και ο πλούτος. (Translated by I. N. Kazazis) – For all things come down to the same horrible Charybdis; people’s virtues and success. https://www.greek-language.gr/digitalResources/ancient_greek/anthology/poetry/browse.html?text_id=433

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

Flora

by ArtMythologyRoman ArtRoman FrecoesStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Villa Arianna Fresco of Flora, (Room W. 26),  1st century AD, fresco, 38×32 cm, from Villa Arianna in Stabiae, National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Primavera_di_Stabiae.jpg

Love came to Flora asking for a flower / That would of flowers be undisputed queen, / The lily and the rose, long, long had been / Rivals for that high honor. Bards of power / Had sung their claims. “The rose can never tower / Like the pale lily with her Juno mien” — “But is the lily lovelier?” Thus between / Flower-factions rang the strife in Psyche’s bower. / “Give me a flower delicious as the rose / And stately as the lily in her pride” — But of what color?” — “Rose-red,” Love first chose, / Then prayed — “No, lily-white — or, both provide;”  / And Flora gave the lotus, “rose-red” dyed, / And “lily-white” — the queenliest flower that blows… writes the Indian poet Toru Dutt and I think of Flora my favorite fresco in Villa Arianna in Stabiae. https://allpoetry.com/Toru-Dutt

Where is Stabiae? Stabiae was an ancient Roman city, or rather a string of luxury villas stretching along the coast, located on the western side of Italy, in the modern-day region of Campania. It was well known for its luxurious villas and rich maritime trade. The city was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD, along with the nearby city of Pompeii. The well-preserved remains of Stabiae, including frescoes and mosaics, offer a unique glimpse into the daily life and culture of ancient Rome. During the Archaic period (8th century BC) Stabiae already played an important strategic and commercial role. The city reached its highest population density between its destruction by Sulla (89 B.C.) and the eruption of Mount Vesuvius (79 A.D.). During this period, on the northernmost edge of the Varano hill, many Villas were built taking advantage of the panoramic views. They were mainly residential villas, with beautifully decorated large apartments, thermal baths, porticoes, and nymphaea. At present, only some of these villas, not entirely excavated yet, can be visited…

Information about Villa Arianna… On the western hills of Varano, and overlooking the Bay of Naples, Villa Arianna, is impressive, to say the least. It is estimated that it covered an area of over 11,000 sq.m., whereas its excavated parts cover only 2,500 sq.m. The villa has an unconventional layout, due in part to its continuous development but also to the sloping nature of the site. As much of the building is still buried, the original floor plan is quite difficult to interpret. Certainly, the main range of rooms was at the front of the highest of a series of terraces; some of these rooms featured views both of the sea on one side and of the mountains on the other. There was also a long tunnel (B) leading from the stables and farm court under the residential quarters to the shore. https://sites.google.com/site/ad79eruption/stabiae/villa-arianna

Excavations at Villa Arianna, When, How, and by Whom… Excavations in Villa Arianna started in 1757 and were conducted by the Swiss engineer Karl Weber, until 1762. At the time, the archaeological site of the Villa was seen more like a treasure hunt exploration site. The Weber team dug underground tunnels, explored the excavated areas, and whatever was discovered and considered of value, like furnishings and frescoes, were detached and taken to the Bourbon Museum at the Royal Palace of Portici. A lot, deemed unworthy or ruined, were left behind and much was ruined by the methods employed by the “archaeologists” of the time. Today, parts of the Villa nearest the sea have collapsed down the cliff and perished forever, extended areas of the site are still buried awaiting excavations, but thanks to a Bourbon-period map showing where tunnels were dug and thereafter re-buried, archaeologists resumed excavations in 1950, and proceed with proper scientific research.

Discuss the Fresco of Flora… Among the many treasures discovered in Villa Arianna is the fresco of Flora, exhibited today in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. It is a 38×32 cm fresco, created for the triclinium area of the Villa (Room W. 26 in the Plan). The fresco depicts the goddess Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers and spring, surrounded by a variety of plants and flowers.

Villa Arianna Fresco of Flora (detail), (Room W. 26),  1st century AD, fresco, 38×32 cm, from Villa Arianna in Stabiae, National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy https://mariasannino.com/2021/03/08/la-fanciulla-che-coglie-fiori/

In vibrant colors, intricate details, and naturalistic depictions of plants and flowers, the lovely Flora, a young girl shown with her back to us, delicately gathering spring flowers, is a fine example of the 3rd Pompeian style in painting. Barefoot with a light step, her veil and the hem of her dress floating in the air, Flora turns suddenly to the side to pick a spring from a thin shrub with white flowers. Shown in a relaxed and carefree manner, the goddess is thought to reflect the changing cultural attitudes of the time, the increasing wealth and luxury of the Roman Empire, and may suggest a greater appreciation for the beauty and abundance of nature in ancient Campania!

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

Holy Thursday – Μεγάλη Πέμπτη

by 16th century ArtArtRenaissanceRenaissance ArtStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Domenikos Theotokopoulos (El Greco), 1541 – 1614
The Agony in the Garden, c. 1590, oil on canvas, 104 x 117 cm, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio, USA https://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/g/greco_el/index.html

Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”  He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. “Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” (Luke 22:39-46 Holy Thursday – Μεγάλη Πέμπτη) https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2022&version=NIV

Domenikos Theotokopoulos was a Cretan Greek, born at Handaka-Candia, present-day Herakleion, part, at the time, of the thriving Republic of Venice. He was young, talented, and ambitious, well-versed in the Creto-Byzantine style of painting, and eager to establish himself among the greatest of his time! By 1567/8 Theotokopoulos traveled to Venice, by 1570, he was in Rome, by 1576 he relocated to Spain, and in 1577 the artist settled in Toledo where he found his spiritual home and remained for the rest of his life. He died on the 7th of April 1614, admired for his unique fluid style, temperamental character, and humanist education. One of his friends and admirers, Hortensio Félix Paravicino y Arteaga (1580-1633) the Spanish poet, preacher, and a member of the Trinitarian Order, wrote for the artist “O Greek divine! We wonder not that in thy works / The imagery surpasses actual being.” Paravicino also wrote, foreseeing Theotokopoulos’s legacy “Future generations will admire his strange genius, but for centuries he will not be imitated.” http://www.nccsc.net/essays/spanish-style 

The Agony in the Garden is a mature El Greco painting circa 1590, created in Toledo. The artist, known for his unique style that combined elements of Renaissance and Byzantine art, depicts the biblical scene of Jesus’ agony (in Greek, agonia, “agony”) in the Garden of Gethsemane, located on the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem before his arrest and crucifixion. Christ prays to God for strength and comfort. He is depicted as a tall and slender figure, surrounded by his disciples who are asleep. He is shown with his head raised to heaven, as he prays in a state of intense emotion and expressive distress. El Greco gives visual form to Matthew 26:42, My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done. http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/54729/the-agony-in-the-garden

My thoughts on why this is a very ‘special,’ one of my favourites, Theotokopoulos paintings:

The composition is unique! El Greco’s figures and landscape are isolated in individual pockets of ambiguous, shallow space. There are four such areas, the sleeping disciples, the imposing Angel to the left, the approaching Roman soldiers to the right, and Christ in the middle, depicted kneeling, praying… in agony. The contrast between the individual pockets of shallow space creates a sense of emotional tension, with Jesus in a state of intense distress and the disciples in peaceful slumber. http://emuseum.toledomuseum.org/objects/54729/the-agony-in-the-garden

El Greco’s use of light and color is one of the most distinctive features of his work. In The Agony in the Garden, the intense light source illuminates Jesus and creates a strong contrast with the dark background, emphasizing his centrality and importance. The use of warm, golden tones adds to the emotional impact of the scene.

The figures in the painting are depicted with elongated forms, a hallmark of El Greco’s style. The two larger figures in the composition, Christ in the middle and the Angel of Compassion and Consolation to the left, facing each other, contribute to the emotional and spiritual intensity of the scene and highlight the dramatic nature of Jesus’ anguish.

The Agony in the Garden is considered one of El Greco’s most important works and is considered a masterpiece of Spanish Renaissance art. It is widely regarded as one of the most powerful and expressive religious paintings of the period and continues to be widely admired and studied by art enthusiasts and scholars today.

For a Student Activity on Holy Thursday – Μεγάλη Πέμπτη, please… Check HERE!

April by Lucien Pissarro

by 19th century ArtArtFrench ArtImpressionismStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Lucien Pissarro, French Artist, 1863–1944
April, Epping, 1894, Oil paint on canvas, 603 × 730 mm, Tate, London, UK
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/lucien-pissarro-april-epping-r1139298

Oh, to be in England / Now that April’s there, / And whoever wakes in England / Sees, some morning, unaware, / That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf / Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, / While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough / In England—now! Robert Browning probably wrote Home-Thoughts, from Abroad in 1845, while he was staying in Italy, homesick of the English countryside during a glorious April morning! Interestingly, April by Lucien Pissarro is an Impressionistic painting of a similar April morning by a French artist living in England! https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43758/home-thoughts-from-abroad

Lucien Pissarro was a French painter, printmaker, and etcher. He was born on February 20, 1863, in Paris, France, and was the oldest son of the Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro. He began his artistic education at a young age, studying under his father and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 1884, he began exhibiting his work in Impressionist exhibitions, and in 1886, he participated in the 8th and final Impressionist exhibition. In 1888, Pissarro moved to London, where he became a member of the New English Art Club and began to develop his own unique style, influenced by the work of the Pre-Raphaelites and Japanese prints. He spent the next two decades in London, exhibiting his work and participating in the city’s art scene. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/lucien-pissarro-r1105344

Portrait of Lucien Pissarro, c.1937, Photograph, black and white, on paper, taken by Lafayette Ltd, London, Tate Archive, London, UK
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/lucien-pissarro-r1105344

In 1910, Pissarro returned to France and settled in the small town of Éragny-sur-Epte, where he focused on painting landscapes and rural scenes. He continued to exhibit his work, and in 1913, he was awarded the Légion d’honneur. Pissarro’s work is characterized by his use of vibrant colors, bold brushstrokes, and a focus on nature. He is considered to be one of the most important Impressionist painters of the 20th century. Pissarro died on July 10, 1944, in Éragny-sur-Epte, France. https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/lucien-pissarro-r1105344

According to the TATE experts David Fraser Jenkins and Helena Bonet, …Lucien Pissarro exhibited April, Epping at the New English Art Club in November–December 1904, where he renewed contact with artists, he had met more than ten years earlier. He was invited to join Walter Sickert’s Fitzroy Street Group in 1907, and so became acquainted with those who went on to form the Camden Town Group in 1911. For the younger artists of the group in particular, Pissarro represented a direct link to the origins of impressionism and neo-impressionism, his father Camille being a great inspiration, as well as his friends Seurat, Signac, and van Gogh. The influence of Pissarro’s style and technique can be traced in the work of Spencer Gore, Harold Gilman, William Ratcliffe and James Bolivar Manson in particular. Sickert wrote of this influence in the New Age in May 1914: ‘Mr. Pissarro, holding the exceptional position at once of an original talent, and of the pupil of his father, the authoritative depository of a mass of inherited knowledge and experience, has certainly served us as a guide, or, let us say, a dictionary of theory and practice on the road we have elected to travel.’ https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/lucien-pissarro-r1105344

Created just a few years after he settled in England, April, Epping is for Lucien Pissarro a new approach to Landscape painting. He breaks away from the ‘teachings’ of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, the ‘neo-impressionist’ or ‘divisionist’ artists with whom he had been friend in Paris, and he creates a landscape painting characterized by thick, visible brushstrokes, and a strong emphasis on light and color. He uses ordered, criss-crossed touches of paint, mostly light green but with a variety of other colours, showing recession by means of colour, and he uses touches of orange, mauve and blue paints among the green of the meadow, to re-introduce the key principle of impressionism, that, of coloured shadows. In May 1894 Lucien Pissarro wrote to his father asking for new materials and …short brushes, like the ones Cézanne used … because I am going to try to paint in an entirely different way. Did he? https://www.tate.org.uk/art/research-publications/camden-town-group/lucien-pissarro-april-epping-r1139298

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

GIOVANNI BELLINI Influences croisées

by ArtItalian Renaissance ArtRenaissanceStudent ActivitiesVenetian ArtWorksheets
Giovanni Bellini, c. 1435/40 – 1516
The Madonna and Child at a Ledge with an Apple: “The Philips Madonna”, c.1459-1460, tempera, oil and gold on a panel of poplar, 76.8 x 53 cm,  Private collection
https://www.sortiraparis.com/album-photo/101484-exposition-giovanni-bellini-musee-jacquemart-andre

Giovanni Bellini opened the way to the art of colour and tones that came to be characteristic of the art of the sixteenth century in Venice… write the Musée Jacquemart-André experts, Neville Rowley and Pierre Curie, introducing the Exhibition GIOVANNI BELLINI Influences croisées (Paris, from 3 March to 17 July 2023). For a private, intimate, Museum like the Jacquemart-André, gathering fifty artworks of the great Venetian master, from public and private European collections, some of which were put on display for the first time, this exhibition was one more great accomplishment. The Exhibition’s goal is to compare the artist’s works with those of his intellectual models, and thus showcase how his artistic language has never ceased to renew itself while developing its very own unique style. Not an easy task… but in creating an effective ‘dialogue’ between Bellini’s works and the ‘models’ that inspired them… the Museum experts were successful in organizing a most interesting Exhibition! While in Paris for four days, the Musée Jacquemart-André Exhibition on Bellini was the first to visit, and thoroughly enjoy it! https://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en/giovanni-bellini

The Exhibition Poster at the Musée Jacquemart-André

Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430 – 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, considered one of the greatest Venetian painters of the 15th century. Born in Venice, he was part of a famous family of artists, including his father Jacopo Bellini, his brother Gentile, and his brother-in-law Andrea Mantegna. His style is characterized by the use of rich, glowing colors, an interest in light and atmospheric effects, and his ability to create a sense of depth and space in his paintings. He is known for his religious paintings, which often featured devotional themes such as the Madonna and Child.

Giovanni Bellini, c. 1435/40 – 1516
The Madonna and Child at a Ledge with an Apple: “The Philips Madonna”, c.1459-1460, tempera, oil, and gold on a panel of poplar, 76.8 x 53 cm,  Private collection
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/master-paintings-sculpture-part-i/the-madonna-and-child-at-a-ledge-with-an-apple-the

The Madonna and Child at a Ledge with an Apple, also known as The Philips Madonna, caught my eye. I am always attracted to Byzantine-influenced Venetian paintings of the Madonna, and Bellini’s Phillips Madonna, painted circa 1460 was no exception. In 1453, when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Ottoman Empire, thousands of refugees flocked to Venice, bringing with them many Greek manuscripts, icons, and relics. It was only natural for the young artist, who had just set up an independent workshop in 1459 in the parish of San Lio, near the Rialto Bridge, to be attracted to an artistic tradition with deep roots in his native city. https://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en/giovanni-bellini

My amateurish iPhone attempt…

Yet, Bellini’s progressive approach to the subject of the Madonna and Child is evident. The Philips Madonna gold ground on which the image is painted represents the Byzantine influence still evident and popular in the city of Venice, but the dynamism of the pose of the figure of the infant Christ… demonstrates Bellini’s awareness of the “new style” being formulated throughout Italy. https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/master-paintings-sculpture-part-i/the-madonna-and-child-at-a-ledge-with-an-apple-the

Giovanni Bellini, c. 1435/40 – 1516
The Madonna and Child at a Ledge with an Apple: “The Philips Madonna”, c.1459-1460, tempera, oil and gold on a panel of poplar, 76.8 x 53 cm,  Private collection
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2022/master-paintings-sculpture-part-i/the-madonna-and-child-at-a-ledge-with-an-apple-the
Attributed to Donatello, 1386–1466
Madonna and Child (The Borromeo Madonna), circa 1450, terracotta, 83.5×52.1 cm, Kimbell Art Museum, TX, USA https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Donatello_Borromeo_Madonna_Kimbell.jpg
Putti of the throne of Saturn, 1st century AD, marble, 58,5 x 69 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Venice https://www.facebook.com/archeovenezia/photos/a.335181736569328/3017256798361795/?type=3

According to Sotheby’s experts, who auctioned the painting on the 27th of January 2022, Bellini’s composition echoes the terracotta reliefs of this same theme by Donatello, whose own work had made such an impression in Venetian artistic circles during the previous two decades. The painting’s Child is also connected, by Mauro Lucco, to the putti in the so-called “Trono di Saturno,” a pair of ancient reliefs that decorated an archway between Piazza San Marco and the Frezzaria. These amazing Roman bas-reliefs furnished inspiration not just for Donatello and Giovanni Bellini, but also for Mantegna, Titian, and Sansovino.

A delightful painting in an Exhibition worth visiting!

For a Student Activity on GIOVANNI BELLINI Influences croisées, please… Check HERE!

Cameo of two Emperors

by ArtRoman ArtStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Busts of Two Emperors, late 3rd century – early 4th century, Chalcedony on Gold, 3.5 cm x 4.3 cm, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, USA
http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%223671%22&sort=0&page=466

The period of the Tetrarchy in the Roman Empire began around 293 CE, twenty years into the rule of the emperor Diocletian. Due to the sheer size of the empire, Diocletian established four regions and appointed two augusti and two caesars, one to govern each section. During this time period, there was an explosion of art being produced emphasizing peace, or concordia. This trend is best shown in official artworks and coins presenting the four rulers in incredible similarities. Such artworks, displayed across the empire were intended to illustrate the unity of the empire despite the 4 rulers and the hierarchy of power ranking them. The Cameo of two Emperors in the Byzantine Collection of the Dumbarton Oaks is one such artwork of incredible beauty! https://sites.rhodes.edu/coins/imperial-imagery-tetrarchy

It was Christmas break 1977, a university student at the time when I first visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and saw the Dumbarton Oaks Cameo of two Emperors. Visiting the Exhibition Age of Spirituality was a ‘Christmas gift’ I will never forget! Many years later… many ‘Exhibitions’ later, I am still surprised and excited when I stand in front of small ‘gems’ like the Dumbarton Oaks Cameo…

According to James D. Breckenridge, the Dumbarton Oaks Cameo presents… two male busts carved in dark stone against an opaque white background. The man on the left of the cameo is frontal, with head turned right, bearded and mustached; his chlamys is fastened at his left shoulder – apparently an arbitrary choice of the gem cutter – with a round brooch. The man on the right appears younger – beardless and without moustache; he is slightly behind his senior and slightly lower. Whereas the older man’s hair and beard are in short curls, his hair is in wavy strands. Pupils and irises of both men are incised. https://books.google.gr/books?id=efLuB7QPDm8C&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false  

Busts of Two Emperors, late 3rd century – early 4th century, Chalcedony on Gold, 3.5 cm x 4.3 cm, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, USA
http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%223671%22&sort=0&page=466

Unfortunately, it is not clear who the depicted men are. The roughly incised inscription DIOCL(etianus) MAXim(ianus) AVG(ustus) on the gold plaque at the back of the gem, the style of execution and details of its iconography, identify, by the majority of scholars, the Cameo portraits, as a product of the Tetrarchy, and subsequently, the depicted men as members of it. Taking into added consideration that the Dumbarton Oaks gem is cut from a larger work, it is highly plausible that the original gem might have shown all four Tetrarchs.  

Back in 1956, Richter suggested Diocletian and Maximian as the represented Tetrarchs, and James D. Breckenridge put forward the names of Maximianus Herculeus and Maxentius. Interestingly, Dumbarton Oaks expert J. Hanson, sets forth the popular, among experts, identification of the two presented leaders as Diocletian and Galerius, who jointly ruled the Eastern half of the Empire from 293 to 305, and the two Western tetrarchs on the lost/missing section, as Maximian and Constantius Chlorus. https://books.google.gr/books?id=efLuB7QPDm8C&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false and http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%223671%22&sort=0&page=466

For a Student Activity on the Cameo of two Emperors, please… Check HERE!

Busts of Two Emperors, late 3rd century – early 4th century, Chalcedony on Gold, 3.5 cm x 4.3 cm, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, USA
http://museum.doaks.org/objects-1/info?query=Portfolios%20%3D%20%223671%22&sort=0&page=466
Map of the Roman Empire, The Period of Tetrarchy, around 293 AD https://sites.rhodes.edu/coins/imperial-imagery-tetrarchy

Eros and the Bee

by 16th century Art1821-Greek Independence DayArtMythologyNorthern RenaissanceRenaissanceStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1472-1553
Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey, 1530, Oil on Panel, 38 x 58 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark
https://open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMSsp719

A wicked bee once filching Eros stung, / As from hive unto hive the sly god flew. / Looting the flower-sweet honeycombs among; / With finger-tips all pierced he cried and blew     /    
His hand, and stamped upon the ground with pain, / And vaulted in the air; to Aphrodite / Sadly he came commencing to complain, / “Although the bee is small his wound is mighty.”     /     Then said his mother smiling, “Are you not / A creature small just like the bee, I pray? / But ne’ertheless it must not be forgot— / The cruel wounds you deal—how great are they!” Idyll XIX, Eros, and the Bee, attributed to the ancient Greek Poet Theocritus of the 3rd century BC, is the source of inspiration for a number of paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder depicting an alluring Venus, and Eros, a stolen piece of honeycomb in hand, stung by Bees.  My favourite version, in the SMK Art Museum in Denmark, is expecting us to probe and explore… http://nicholasjv.blogspot.com/2009/11/sweetness-of-honey-and-sting-of-bees.html

Venus with Cupid as a honey thief was probably one of the most successful mythology-inspired compositions created by the German artist of the Renaissance period Lucas Cranach the Elder. Scholars suggest there are twenty versions of the same theme, dated between 1527 and 1545, painted by the artist, his workshop, or followers of his theme and style.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1472-1553
Cupid complaining to Venus, c. 1526–27, Oil on Panel, 81.3×54.6 cm, National Gallery, London, UK
Venus and Cupid as Honey Thief, 1527, on beech wood, 83×58.2 cm, Güstrow Castle, Germany
Venus and Cupid, the Honey Thief, 1529, Oil and Tempera on Beech Wood, 38.1×23.5 cm, Cook collection, National Gallery, London UK
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_complaining_to_Venus
Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1472-1553
Venus and Cupid, 1531, Oil on Panel, 51×35 cm, Fondation Bemberg, Toulouse, France
Venus and Cupid, the Honey Thief, circa 1537, Oil on Lime Panel, 50.1×34.4 cm,
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, Germany
Venus with Cupid as a Honey Thief against a Black Background, 1537, Oil on Lime Panel, 175.4×66.3 cm, Bavarian State Painting Collections, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, Germany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupid_complaining_to_Venus

These paintings depict the same two figures, Venus, the Greek Goddess of beauty and love in glorious nudity, and her son, Eros, god of love as well, holding a stolen piece of honeycomb, stung by bees, and in obvious pain. My favourite painting of Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey is exhibited in the Statens Museum for Kunst in Denmark and combines all the important elements of the composition.

In the upper, left corner of the painting in Denmark, a sign with a reference to Idyll XIX of Theocritus clearly explains the theme. “As Cupid was stealing honey from the hive / A bee stung the thief on the finger / And so do we seek transitory and dangerous pleasures. / That are mixed with sadness and bring us pain.” The wording does not reproduce Theocritus’ exact Greek text, but rather a Latin epigram based on the poem. Painted on a cream-coloured ‘panel’ on the upper left side of the painting, the epigram is related to the work of the great German humanist Philipp Melanchthon. with whom Cranach was closely connected in producing illustrations for Luther’s Bible translation. (A short but comprehensive presentation of Philipp Melanchthon’s contribution to Humanism in Germany… Melanchthon: A German Humanist by A. Pelzer Wagener, The Classical Weekly, Vol. 22, No. 20 (Mar. 25, 1929), pp. 155-160 (6 pages). I particularly like his point of view that Greek and Latin should be studied side by side by all who sought to grasp the substance of the involved rather than its shadow”. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4389299?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents) https://open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMSsp719

Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1472-1553
Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey (Detail), 1530, Oil on Panel, 38 x 58 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark
https://open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMSsp719
Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1472-1553
Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey (Detail), 1530, Oil on Panel, 38 x 58 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark
https://open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMSsp719

Examining Cranach’s painting at SMK, depicting Venus, Eros, and the landscape that surrounds them, I see, compared to the rest of Cranach’s paintings of the same theme. elegance and grace, an understated sense of humor, and a subtle mood of morality. The Landscape, in a true Norther European Renaissance tradition, is glorious, lush, and detailed. It invites you to examine the luxurious foliage, the city reflections on the depicted water, and the travelers’ mannerisms. Eros, a blond toddler with blue wings, ever so charming, is displaying his surprise and pain with gusto. Venus looks at the viewer, and laughs, explaining to him that the effect is comparable to the wounds he himself inflicts on all those struck by his arrows. What a painting to consider Love, Euphoria, and Heartache!

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

Lucas Cranach the Elder, c. 1472-1553
Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey (Detail), 1530, Oil on Panel, 38 x 58 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, Denmark
https://open.smk.dk/artwork/image/KMSsp719

Astragaloi Players

by Ancient Roman VillasArtMythologyRoman ArtStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Alexander of Athens, 1st cent BC-1st cent AD
Astragaloi players from Herculaneum, 1st cent BC-1st cent AD, Marble and Pigment, 47.6×50.5 cm, National Archaeological Museum of Naples, Italy https://mann-napoli.it/affreschi/#gallery-8

Niobe ((P. Ovidius Naso, Metamorphoses)… So many things / increased her pride: She loved to boast / her husband’s skill, their noble family, / the rising grandeur of their kingdom. Such / felicities were great delights to her; / but nothing could exceed the haughty way / she boasted of her children: and, in truth, / Niobe might have been adjudged on earth, / the happiest mother of mankind, if pride / had not destroyed her wit… and Leto’s anger fell hard on her… Childless— she crouched beside her slaughtered sons, / her lifeless daughters, and her husband’s corpse. / The breeze not even moved her fallen hair, / a chill of marble spread upon her flesh, / beneath her pale, set brows, her eyes moved not, / her bitter tongue turned stiff in her hard jaws, / her lovely veins congealed, and her stiff neck / and rigid hands could neither bend nor move.— / her limbs and body, all were changed to stone… The Astragaloi Players, the painted marble Pinax from Herculaneum, takes the viewer to moments of contentment when Leto and Niobe certainly they loved each other like true friend (Sappho Fragment 142)… before Niobe’s Ύβρις (transgression against a god) and Leto’s painful Wrath!  https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0028%3Abook%3D6 and https://digitalsappho.org/fragments/fr118-168/

The famous painting of the Astragaloi Players was discovered in the House of Neptune and Amphitrite, in Herculaneum, on Cardo IV, in May 1746. Not one of the largest houses in ancient Herculaneum, yet one of the most famous, and visited, as it boasts three masterpieces.

The Villa’s Garden Court, with a summer triclinium, veneered with marble, on the far end wall, the Nymphaeum, and the famous Neptune and Amphitrite mosaic.

First, the mosaic decorating the Nymphaeum, located in the Inner Garden Court of the house. Adorned with geometric and floral motifs and hunting scenes with dogs and deer composed of glass paste tesserae, shells, and designs of mother of pearl, the Nymphaeum mosaic is brightly colorful and elegant. Second, in the center of the east wall, the mosaic after which the house is named shows Neptune and Amphitrite surrounded by an exquisite frame of decorative motifs. Third, the Marble Pinax of the Astragaloi Players is detached and exhibited today in Naples Archaeological Museum.

The depicted scene in the marble Pinax, titled Astragaloi Players, presents the act immediately preceding the massacre of the Niobids. The myth, also told by Ovid (Metamorphoses, VI), narrates that Niobe, wife of Amphion, king of Thebes, and mother of many children, dared to declare herself even superior to the goddess Leto, mother of only two children, Apollo, and Artemis. Leto, angered by Niobe and her outrageous presumption, ordered the killing of the queen’s seven sons by Apollo and the killing of her seven daughters with arrows shot by Artemis. https://mann-napoli.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/10.-Giocatrici-di-astragali.pdf

Astragaloi players from Herculaneum, Drawing of the painting on marble, in Antichità di Ercolano: Tomo Primo: Le Pitture 1, 1757, 1,5
https://herculaneum.uk/Ins%205/Herculaneum%205%2007.htm

The inscriptions in capital Greek characters, placed next to each figure depicted in the Pinax, identify the members of the story by name. In the background, three women are identified as Leto (left), Niobe (middle), and Phoebe (right). In the foreground, kneeling and involved in a game of Astragaloi, the artist of the composition placed two of Niobe’s daughters, Aglaia (left) and Ilaria (right). Another inscription, placed in the upper left corner, introduces us to the artist, a man called Alexander from Athens (ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΑθΗΝΑΙΟΣ ΕΓΡΑΦΕΝ).  

Antonio Coppa of the Naples Archaeological Museum believes that this marble painting is most likely a Neo-Attic remake of an original painting of the late 5th century BC, attributable to the famous Zeuxis. The archaeologist also believes that the presence of names identifying each figure depicted in the composition fits into the archaizing fashion of the Augustan age, allowing to date the work between the end of the 1st century BC and the beginning of the 1st century AD. https://mann-napoli.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/10.-Giocatrici-di-astragali.pdf

The painting of the Astragaloi Players was immediately defined as “monochrome”, believing it to be an example of those paintings in which the only color for their realization was the cinnabar. However, recent investigations into the picture pigment have highlighted the use of multiple colors: pink and yellow for the clothes, red for the sandals, and black for the hair; moreover, the different gradations of color gave volume to the figures, therefore the current monochrome is only the result of the action of time. https://mann-napoli.it/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/10.-Giocatrici-di-astragali.pdf

What a magnificent discovery!

For a Student Activity, please… Check HERE!

The Enkolpion of Empress Maria

by ArtEarly Christian ArtStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Enkolpion of Empress Maria, 398-407, Agate Cameo, Gold, Ruby or Garnet, Emerald, 2.6×1.8×1 cm, the Louvre, Paris, France https://www.doaks.org/research/byzantine/scholarly-activities/dynastic-jewels-a-late-antique-rhetoric-of-treasure-and-adornment

Late Antique poetry has often been characterized by its ‘jeweled style,’ in which authors mobilized ornament, variety, and tessellation for the purposes of visual splendor and immediacy. Jewels, and treasure more broadly, also serve as particularly effective metonyms for power. And historians frequently describe the programmatic effort to bolster dynastic power over the course of the fourth century as a ‘dynastic imperative.’ Is The Enkolpion of Empress Maria in the collection of the Louvre an example of Imperious Power? Worn around the neck of Empress Maria, was this unique Enkolpion an integral part of the sustained program of dynasty building in the tumultuous years following the death of Emperor Theodosius I? https://www.doaks.org/events/byzantine-studies/2022-2023/dynastic-jewels-a-late-antique-rhetoric-of-treasure-and-adornment

Empress Maria’s Enkolpion is a small piece of jewelry, 1.3 x 1.8 cm in size, and round in shape. It is a flat receptacle of earth grains probably from the Holy Land, smelling, at the time of its discovery, of musk. The two white and russet orange agate cameos it is made of are attached back to back by a band of gold adorned with emeralds and rubies. How splendid can it be! It can… if you consider the cameos’ simple, yet ‘powerful’ decoration.

Both cameos are embellished with inscriptions, in the shape of Christograms, cut in very low relief, arranged spikelike around a central ansate cross. One cameo reads: Honorius and Maria (the loop of the letter Rho), Stelicho, Serena, vivatis in Deo, and the other cameo reads: Stelicho and Serena (the loop of the letter Rho), Eucherius, Thermantia, vivatis in Deo. Everyone mentioned by name in the two inscriptions is an important member of the Theodosian Dynasty! https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/Age_of_Spirituality_Late_Antique_and_Early_Christian_Art_Third_to_Seventh_Century

Maria’s Enkolpion, suggested to be a wedding gift, is a family heirloom! Stelicho, for example, of Vandal origin, was a powerful military commander in the Roman army. Married to Serena, the niece of emperor Theodosius I, and guardian for the underage Emperor Honorius, Stelicho was the father of Maria, Emperor Honorius’s first wife, Thermantia, the young Emperor’s second wife, and Eucherius. If this isn’t a ‘dynastic imperative’ then what can it be?

The Enkolpion was found in February 1544, in Rome, in a sarcophagus in what was once the Mausoleum of Emperor Honorius, later, during the 8th century, converted into the Chapel of Saint Petronilla. The Mausoleum was built next to the Vatican Rotunda, another round structure on Vatican Hill, beside Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

The Mausoleum was used as the resting place for members of the Theodosian Imperial family. The first to be buried was Augusta Maria, the first wife of Honorius, who died young, before 408. Honorius, the first emperor of the Theodosian dynasty was also entombed there in 424. The Mausoleum was used as a resting place for Honorius’s second wife Thermantia, and probably, Honorius’s sister, Augusta  Galla Placidia, her husband Augustus Constantius III, and her sons Theodosius and Valentinian III. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Honorius  

For a Student Activity, inspired by The Enkolpion of Empress Maria, please… Check HERE!

Teika’s Poems for the Twelve Months presented by Tosa Mitsunari

by 17th century ArtArtJapanese ArtStudent ActivitiesWorksheets
Tosa Mitsunari, Japanese Artist, 1646-1710
Teika’s Poems for the Twelve Months, Edo period (1603-1868), 1646-1710, ink, color and gold leaf on paper, six-fold screen, 170.18x 61.92 cm (each panel), Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tosa_Mitsunari_-_Teika%27s_Poems_for_the_Twelve_Months_-_2000.9_-_Indianapolis_Museum_of_Art.jpg

Before my eyes / the snowflakes fall upon the icy pond / piling up like the years gone by / like the layered feather coats of the oshi… wrote Fujiwara Teika back in 1214. Many years later Fujiwara Teika’s Poems for the Twelve Months presented by Tosa Mitsunari delight us with their elegance and beauty! http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/55793/

Who is Fujiwara Teika? Fujiwara Sadaie, also called Teika, or Fujiwara Teika, (born 1162, Japan—died Sept. 26, 1241, Kyōto), is one of the greatest poets of his age and Japan’s most influential poetic theorists and critics until modern times. The son of a great poet, Shunzei (or Toshinari, 1114–1204), Teika surpassed his father’s literary legacy and raised his family in political importance. His literary talent attracted the attention of retired emperor Go-Toba (1180–1239), who appointed him, in 1205, one of the compilers of the eighth Imperial anthology Shin kokinshū (c. 1205, “New Collection of Ancient and Modern Times”), and in 1232, sole compiler of the ninth anthology, Shin chokusenshū (1235; “New Imperial Collection”). This is a great accomplishment and honour. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fujiwara-Sadaie

Who is Tosa Mitsunari? Tosa Mitsusuke (1675–1710) was a Japanese artist of the Edo era. In 1696, as the 18th head of the Tosa school of painting, Mitshunari was appointed  Official Court Painter with duties to serve the Emperor. He worked for the Imperial Official Bureau of Painting and managed to revive his family’s political and economic fortunes. In 1709, he did paintings of room partitions in the royal palace and in the Sento palace with Kano Tsunenobu. Mitsuoki was known for reintroducing the Yamato-e style and reviving the Tosa school of painting. He painted delicate bird-and-flower (kacho) paintings in the Chinese court manner and was especially noted for his precise depictions of quail. https://prabook.com/web/tosa.mitsuoki/3742785 and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tosa_Mitsusuke

Tosa Mitsunari, Japanese Artist, 1646-1710
Teika’s Poems for the Twelve Months, Edo period (1603-1868), 1646-1710, ink, color and gold leaf on paper, six-fold screen, 170.18x 61.92 cm (each panel), Indianapolis Museum of Art,
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/tosa-mitsunari-teikas-poems-for-the-twelve-months

How are a poet and a painter connected in art? Japanese secular painting and poetry walk side by side. Poets composed verses about images in paintings and painters made works based on poems and inscribed them with erudite calligraphy, or pasted a poem in elegant characters onto the painting. The resulting synthesis exceeded the sum of the parts, creating many layers of meaning. http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/55793/

Tosa Mitsunari, Japanese Artist, 1646-1710
Teika’s Poems for the Twelve Months, Edo period (1603-1868), 1646-1710, ink, color and gold leaf on paper, six-fold screen, 170.18x 61.92 cm (each panel), Indianapolis Museum of Art,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tosa_Mitsunari_-_Teika%27s_Poems_for_the_Twelve_Months_-_2000.10_-_Indianapolis_Museum_of_Art.jpg

Are Fujiwara Teika’s Poems for the Twelve Months painted by Tosa Mitsunari in the Indianapolis Museum of Art Screen an example of artistic collaboration? Yes, the Indianapolis Screen is a perfect example. The pair of six-fold screens in the Indianapolis Museum masterfully combines landscape painting and poetic texts. The texts, poems by Fujiwara Teika, subtly express emotions through metaphors of nature. The imagery, a typical landscape by Tosa Mitsunari, celebrates the changing aspect of nature. The depicted months are numbered according to the lunar calendar, and the first month, presented in the first panel, roughly corresponds to February. http://collection.imamuseum.org/artwork/55793/

For a Student Activity inspired by the Indianapolis Museum Japanese Screens, please… Check, HERE!