Metropolitan Museum - New Greek And Roman Galleries

After more than five years of construction, the long-awaited opening will conclude a 15-year project for the complete redesign and reinstallation of the Museum's superb collection of classical art. Returning to public view in the new space are thousands of long-stored works from the Metropolitan's collection, which is considered one of the finest in the world. The centerpiece of the New Greek and Roman Galleries is the majestic Leon Levy and Shelby White Court - a monumental, peristyle court for the display of Hellenistic and Roman art, with a soaring two-story atrium.

"The New Greek and Roman Galleries are a milestone in an unprecedented building campaign - more than a dozen years in the making - to construct anew within the framework of our historic building, to make use of new methodologies while honoring the old, and to encourage our visitors to look at ancient art in a new way," commented Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum. "Some 6,000 works previously in storage, many of them collected in the earliest years after the Museum's founding in 1870, will now be installed on two levels of commodious new galleries by our brilliant team of curators under the leadership of Carlos Picón, Curator in Charge of the Department of Greek and Roman Art. As we celebrate this landmark event, we remember with gratitude the generosity of our many friends, past and present, who have made this possible - among them Shelby White and her late husband Leon Levy, and our dear friends the late Bill Blass and the late Frank A. Cosgrove, Jr., whose generous gifts have made possible this glorious new exhibition space for Greek and Roman art."

Shelby White commented: "My late husband, Leon Levy, believed that by studying past civilizations we would better understand ourselves. What better setting to do that than these magnificent new galleries. I am thrilled."

"The fashion designer Bill Blass was a collector of truly discerning taste," noted Carlos Picón, "with a passionate interest in the 'classics' of many time periods - including antiquities. Although he had been a loyal and active member of our departmental friends group for many years, the bequest of half of his estate to the Department of Greek and Roman Art was immensely gratifying and a complete surprise."
He continued: "Similarly, Frank Cosgrove - who had an interest in Greek and Roman art - also made a very significant bequest to the Metropolitan, which was made known to the Museum following his death in 1992. We feel certain that he would have been delighted to see these new galleries. It is with great pleasure that the Museum places the names of these two men in the galleries that contain superb examples of art that they both esteemed."

The New Greek and Roman Galleries, located in The Lamont Wing at the southern end of the building, will house art created between about 900 B.C. and the early fourth century A.D., tracing the parallel stories of the evolution of Greek art in the Hellenistic period and the arts of southern Italy and Etruria, culminating in the rich and varied world of the Roman Empire. On the first floor, contiguous to the central Leon Levy and Shelby White Court on three sides, are galleries for Hellenistic and Roman art. The installation continues on the wholly redesigned mezzanine level, where galleries for Etruscan art and the Greek and Roman study collection overlook the court from two sides. Together, the astonishing assembly of works on display - some never before seen by the public - will bring to life the visual and conceptual roots of Western civilization.

LEON LEVY AND SHELBY WHITE COURT: The focal point of the new galleries is the spectacular Leon Levy and Shelby White Court for Hellenistic and Roman art, which occupies an area created by the renowned architectural firm of McKim Mead and White between 1912 and 1926. The atrium, which evoked the ambulatory garden of a large private Roman villa, has been transformed through the addition of a second story and a dazzling colored marble floor into a much grander space befitting its location as the culmination of the Museum's display for its outstanding Greek and Roman collections. The McKim, Mead and White atrium served to display Roman art for a mere two decades before being converted into the Museum's restaurant and cafeteria. Although the new design introduces several features, it remains faithful to the architects' original concept: a classically inspired architectural style and a glass roof that allows the objects below to be viewed in natural daylight. On view in the center of the court will be nearly 20 Roman sculptures created between the first century B.C. and the third century A.D., that demonstrate a range of materials, styles, and subject matter.

The Old Market Woman (Roman, first century A.D.) is a realistic study in marble of an elderly woman in an elegant dress, thong sandals, and a crown of Dionysiac ivy leaves. She is dressed for a festival, and the chickens and basket of fruit she carries are probably offerings for Dionysus, god of wine.

The life-size bronze Portrait Statue of a Boy (Roman, Augustan period, late first century B.C.-early first century A.D.), depicts a youth on the threshold of adulthood. Treasured more highly than marble, bronze statues were common in the Hellenistic and Roman periods but were routinely melted down in later periods. Thus, life-sized Roman bronzes are rare in modern collections.

Roman admiration for Greek culture is evident in the marble statue of Dionysus, god of wine and divine intoxication (Roman, first century A.D., copy of a Greek original). He wears a panther skin over his short chiton and high sandals, with animal heads on the overhanging skin flaps. He stands beside an archaistic female image, whose pose and dress imitate those of Greek statues carved in the sixth century B.C. This work is known as the Hope Dionysos, after the prominent collector Thomas Hope, who acquired it in 1796.

Two larger-than-life-size statues of Hercules face one another from either side of the court (both Roman, Flavian, first century A.D.) A lion skin is draped over the left arm of the young, beardless Hercules. The older, bearded Hercules wears the lion skin across his shoulders, with the lion's head and mane forming a hood on his head. Both works were part of the Giustiniani Collection in Rome, first published in 1631.
The purple stone called porphyry (from the Greek word for purple) was especially prized for monuments and building projects in Imperial Rome. A decorative support for a basin (Roman, second century A.D.) owes its appeal as much to the vibrant color of the stone as to the bold, clear carving. The stone was imported from quarries in the eastern deserts of Upper Egypt. The support formed part of the collection of William Waldorf Astor, later Baron Astor of Hever, who assembled his collection of antiquities between 1890 and 1905.

The Met's representative collection of Roman portrait busts depicting emperors, other members of the imperial family, and private individuals will be displayed in chronological order along the perimeter of the court. Included will be two statues of members of the Julio-Claudian family, shown in heroic semi-nudity, that are recent bequests of Bill Blass. Returning to view will be an impressive grouping of some two dozen Roman portrait heads, including a number of Roman emperors. The dissemination of imperial portraits in sculpture, gems, and coins was the chief means of political propaganda in the Roman empire. Although the marble portrait head of the Emperor Augustus (Roman, ca. A.D. 14-37) incorporates individualized features, the overall effect is one of elevated dignity that recalls Greek statues of the fifth century B.C. The fine marble bust of Caligula (Roman, A.D. 37-42) adheres to the basic imperial image established by Augustus, to which the artist has added a proud turn of the head that conveys something of Caligula's personality. His reign of extravagance and oppression ended in his assassination in A.D. 41. The marble portrait of Antoninus Pius (Roman, A.D. 138-161) shows the emperor with a thick, curly beard and a frame of hair around his face - similar to portraits of Hadrian, his predecessor and adoptive father.
Additionally, there will be thematic displays of Hellenistic art, Hellenistic funerary art, Roman funerary art, sarcophagi, and Roman architecture. Of particular interest are architectural fragments from the emperor Domitian's palace on the Palatine in Rome (Roman, ca. A.D. 90-92) - being shown for the first time in decades.

Noteworthy among the sarcophagi is the Marble Garland Sarcophagus (Roman, ca. A.D. 200-225). Found at Tarsus, in southern Turkey, in 1863, it entered the Metropolitan in 1870 as the first object offered to and accepted by the Museum. Adorned along the front and sides with garlands of oak leaves, Medusa heads, Cupids, and Victories, the lid and back of the sarcophagus are unfinished.
A masterpiece is the Badminton Sarcophagus (Roman, A.D. 260-65). Carved in high relief from a single block of marble, it shows the god Dionysus seated on a panther and surrounded by an entourage of lusty satyrs, maenads (his female devotees), the horned god Pan, and four youths who represent the Seasons, each bearing appropriate attributes. The play of light and shadow over the surface of this superlative work generates a feeling of vibrancy and energy. This work came to the Metropolitan Museum from the collection of the dukes of Beaufort and was formerly displayed in their country seat, Badminton Hall in Gloucestershire, England.

Leon Levy and Shelby White Gallery for Hellenistic Art and Architecture: The Hellenistic period spanned the three centuries between the death of Alexander the Great (323 B.C.) and the Battle of Actium (31 B.C.), where the victorious young general Octavian - who later became the emperor Augustus - established himself as the sole ruler of the Roman empire. Hellenistic art did not break with the past, but the conquest of the East brought wider horizons. Artists looked for new subjects and discovered inspiration through observation of daily life.

Prominently displayed within this gallery is the newly conserved Sardis Column (Greek, 3rd century B.C.). The fluted marble column once stood some 56 feet high in its original setting: the Temple of Artemis at Sardis, the ancient capital of Lydia, in western Turkey. At the Metropolitan, where it is shown with only part of the shaft, it measures nearly 12 feet in height from its scale-patterned base to its finely crafted Ionic capital. Sardis was one of the cities of western Asia Minor in which Greek influence was continually interwoven with local traditions. Massive architectural fragments enrich the display and provide an impression of the sumptuous detail on what was one of the largest temples ever built in antiquity. These objects were excavated at Sardis early in the 20th century.

The features of a recently acquired monumental marble Head of a Ptolemaic Queen (Greek, Hellenistic period, third century B.C.) are highly idealized in a pure Greek style, but the face is stamped with enough individuality to justify calling it a portrait. The subject is a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greeks who ruled Egypt from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C. until its annexation by Rome after the dramatic suicide of Cleopatra VII in 30 B.C. The noble and radiant head, which retains its original polish, ranks with the finest Ptolemaic royal portraits.

LEON LEVY AND SHELBY WHITE GALLERY FOR ETRUSCAN ART (ninth-second century B.C.) - MEZZANINE LEVEL: This dramatic gallery on the mezzanine, overlooking the Leon Levy and Shelby White Court to the north and Central Park to the south, is devoted to the art of the Etruscans, from their earliest creations to the time of Roman rule. The Etruscans were the dominant culture of pre-Roman Italy, and they had a profound influence on Roman art, religion, technology, and language before being subsumed into the Roman state by the early first century B.C. Etruria, the region occupied by the Etruscans and located between the Arno and Tiber rivers, was rich in metal, particularly copper and iron. The Etruscans were master metalsmiths, who exported their finished products throughout the Mediterranean area. In trade, they received exotic materials such as ivory, amber, and semi-precious stones, all of which fostered the development of Etruscan gem engraving and other arts. In the absence of fine marble, the Etruscans were also well-known for their terracotta freestanding sculpture and architectural reliefs.

The centerpiece of the Leon Levy and Shelby White Gallery for Etruscan art is one of the great works in the Museum's collection, the newly restored, world-famous Etruscan chariot (second quarter of the sixth century B.C.). One of very few complete chariots to survive from antiquity, this superb work is returning to public view for the first time since the early 1990s, after extensive study and conservation. Made of bronze (mounted on a wooden substructure) and inlaid with precious elephant and hippopotamus ivory, the chariot is richly decorated with scenes from the life of the Greek hero Achilles. Although the subject matter is Greek, the artistic style is entirely Etruscan. The chariot would have accommodated the driver and a distinguished passenger. Because chariots were no longer used in warfare at the time this example was made, it was probably used solely for ceremonial purposes before being buried in a tomb. A rich array of smaller bronze and terracotta objects found in the same tomb is displayed nearby, as is the Bolsena tomb-group, which includes works that were part of the burial of a woman.

The Homeric subject matter of the bronze chariot poses the question of how the story of Achilles became known in Etruria. Bards may have recited the tale. Written documents may have existed as well. Also on view is a small Etruscan vase in the shape of a cockerel (ca. 650-600 B.C.). The head acts as a stopper and was secured to the bird's body by a cord. Inscribed with the 26 letters of the Etruscan alphabet - many of which are clearly identifiable as the antecedents of letters in the Roman alphabet - this charming work may originally have contained ink.

A small bronze statuette of a young Etruscan woman (last quarter of the sixth century B.C.) was most likely used as a religious offering in a sanctuary. Elaborately dressed in a fine, crinkled undergarment, with a heavier cloak draped diagonally across her chest, she wears pointed shoes, and a fillet with three rosettes on her head, as well as earrings and a necklace. Her left hand pulls at her dress, and her right arm - now missing - would have been extended and possibly bent up at the elbow. Although the pose parallels many Greek examples of the time, the shoes and the use of incised rather than modeled details are typically Etruscan.

Etruscan artists distinguished themselves as gem carvers and goldsmiths, and their jewelry is among the finest in the entire ancient world. The so-called "Morgan amber" (Etruscan, ca. 500 B.C.) shows a couple reclining on a couch. The most complex and most important carved amber surviving from ancient Italy, it came to the Museum with the bequest of the collection of J. Pierpont Morgan. The woman wears a pointed hat, long cloak, and pointed shoes. Her companion is a young beardless man. Holes in the base contain traces of a bronze pin, suggesting that this luxury object was a decorative element on a fibula (the pin used to secure clothing). The amber came from the Baltic Sea.

Another highlight is a set of jewelry found in a tomb - the richest and most impressive set of Etruscan jewelry ever found (late archaic Etruscan, early fifth century B.C.). The materials are finely worked gold, glass, rock crystal, agate, and carnelian. The set comprises a splendid gold and glass pendant necklace, a pair of gold and rock-crystal disk earrings, a gold fibula decorated with a sphinx, a pair of plain gold fibulae, a gold dress pin, and five finger rings. Two of the rings have engraved scarabs; one is decorated with embossed satyr heads, and the other two have decorated gold bezels. The display also includes a group of Etruscan and Italic armor that brings to mind the political upheavals of the period, elaborately carved cinerary urns, and 14 beautifully engraved Etruscan mirrors.

LEON LEVY AND SHELBY WHITE GALLERY HOUSING THE GREEK AND ROMAN STUDY COLLECTION (Prehistoric Greek-Late Roman) - MEZZANINE LEVEL: The installation features a large display of study material, comprising some 4,000 works in all media and covering the entire cultural and chronological span of the department's collection, from the art of prehistoric Greece through late Roman art. Among the noteworthy works in this area are a collection of prehistoric Greek vases given to the Metropolitan Museum in 1927 by the Greek government and a Roman transport amphora given by the noted underwater explorer Jacques Cousteau. Also on view are several hundred examples of Roman glass in fantastic shapes and colors, ranging from clear colorless to darkest blue, and from greenish yellow to deep amber. Computer screens located throughout the study collection will allow visitors to access electronic labels for the objects. An additional gallery on the second floor will be devoted to the display of special exhibitions in the future.

By www.metmuseum.org