…continued from Part One… The incredible collection of statues in the National Archaeological Museum shows the continuation of the Greek efforts to create three dimensional figures, first to depict deities, then to commemorate individuals. I know that a lot of people don’t like Archaic art – that is, the style that was in vogue before the Classical style, which is…
Byzantine and Christian Museum, Βυζαντινό και Χριστιανικό Μουσείο, Athens, Greece Having attempted to write an ill-fated PhD dissertation on early Christian art, I have a somewhat difficult relationship with the subject. One the one hand, I find the whole subject of creating a visual language for a new religion fascinating, and on the other hand I associate it with the…
Museum of Ancient Art and Ludwig Collection, Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, Basel, Switzerland Recently, Sister-Chickpea asked me why I’d never ended up writing up a post about the Basel Museum. Honestly, it’s because I’ve had such a backlog of posts to write, I’d forgotten about it. Then I found out that they were closing many of the galleries to…
…continued from Part Two… Near East A small but interesting selection of objects from the Near East starts our exploration of the ancient world – with a brief detour to the 14th century for a cute bowl from Antioch. Ancient Egypt The museum has an unexpectedly fascinating collection of Egyptian objects – I could have spent longer looking, but it…
The Carlsberg Glyptotek, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, Denmark The name Carlsberg is synonymous with beer. It’s quite funny that with every bottle of beer that got guzzled, the Carlsberg family was able to amass a fortune which was put towards buying art. Next time you want a beer that supports the fine arts, buy Carlsberg. But seriously, the history of…
The Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities, Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden Clearly if a town has a museum dedicated to the ancient world, I’m there. And I’ll probably be there for a long time. And I was at the Mediterranean Museum for much longer than I expected – and still didn’t see the entire collection. I totally missed the Islamic section,…