The Walters Art Museum to exhibit "Heroes: Mortals & Myths in Ancient Greece" |
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| Written by Katherine Schiller |
| Sunday, 29 November 2009 01:52 |
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Heroes, a traveling exhibition, will feature more than 100 artworks from European and North American museums. Statues, reliefs, vases, bronzes and jewelry will be combined with literary quotes to illustrate the lives of heroes and heroines, including their tasks, adversaries, challenges, failures and private moments. "We are so pleased to have loans from such highly regarded museums as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Archeological Museum in Athens and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," said Walters' Director Gary Vikan. "The Walters has one of the largest and finest collections of ancient Greek art in the United States and with the contributions of these outstanding lenders, along with many others, the exhibition will allow a greater understanding of heroes past as well as examine our own attitudes towards the heroes of today."  There is no easy answer to what makes a
hero—either in ancient Greece or in modern times. The reasons why somebody
became a hero or heroine in ancient Greece were manifold. In general, before a
person could be considered a hero two important characteristics had to be met.
"First, heroes had superhuman powers but were mortals who were believed to have lived and died, and second, becoming a hero in the Greek sense occurred only after death," stated Sabine Albersmeier, former Walters' associate curator of ancient art. This exhibition is dedicated to the memory of Christine Dunbar Sarbanes (1935–2009). "Christine is a true and abiding hero of our time," said Vikan. "Odysseus-like in her commitment to the Walters Art Museum, she was a compassionate advocate for the audiences we strive to serve." Exhibition Overview The Heroes exhibition is divided into three sections. The first, Heroes in Myth, presents the lifecycles of four major heroes—Achilles, Herakles, Odysseus and Helen—each with their own distinctive characteristics and unique tales. Visitors will learn about their parentage, birth, education, marriages and death. A major component focuses on the crucial moments of triumph as well as setbacks in their lives, revealing not only their vulnerability but also their ability to overcome obstacles. An interactive component will include a quiz linking visitor's personality traits to those of eight Greek heroes, gods and monsters. Each person can take the quiz to see which protagonists they are most like and then follow "their" hero through the exhibition. The highlighted heroine Helen represents the archetype of feminine grace, power and beauty. She can be seen on a large vessel for mixing wine and water in Helen and Menelaos at the Sack of Troy (440–430 BCE). Menelaos, her husband, is shown racing towards her. Helen flees with her clothes enticingly loose about her. Menelaos changes any thoughts he had about murdering his willful wife and moves towards here with a leer on his face while dropping his sword. Some heroes are defined by their adversaries—monsters or warriors they kill in battle. The Head of Polyphemos (Roman, 1st or 2nd century CE) represents the Cyclops with a single large eye extending across the bridge of the nose. Polyphemos appears in Greek and Roman art primarily as one of the major foes and many obstacles encountered on Odysseus' journey home from Troy. Visit The Walters Art Museum at : http://thewalters.org/ Click on logo below to add this article to your favorite Social Website ~ |
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