PERMANENT EXHIBITION

Ancient Greek Art

Two permanent exhibitions attempt to bring visitors closer to the world of Antiquity

THE EXHIBITION

The collection of Ancient Greek Art comprises painted vases, terracotta figurines, bronze vessels, stone sculptures, coins, gold jewellery and glass items, covering a wide time span from the 2nd millennium BC to the 4th c. AD.

During this long period, major socio-political events took place, including the rise of Greek city- states, the establishment of democracy and the appearance of the first Mediterranean empires. Each of these developments left its imprint on art, producing images which reflect different social values and ideologies.

The exhibition on the 2nd floor of the museum provides a comprehensive overview of historical, artistic and technological developments in the course of ancient Greek history. The exhibition on the 4th floor offers a vivid glance on everyday life in Classical Athens, accompanied with rich educational material.

PERMANENT EXHIBITIONS

1/5 Photo. Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
2/5 Photo. Irene Miari © Museum of Cycladic Art
3/5 Photo. Irene Miari © Museum of Cycladic Art
4/5 Photo. Irene Miari © Museum of Cycladic Art
5/5 Photo. Irene Miari © Museum of Cycladic Art

The exhibition has retained a chronological structure –necessary in order to accommodate approximately 400 artefacts ranging in date from the 2nd millennium BC (focusing on material from Minoan Crete and Mycenaean Greece) to the 4th century AD– but builds and extends its narrative upon the concept of the image. 

The ancient Greek city is often called a ‘city of images’.  Few ancient civilizations have depicted their gods and heroes, their myths, their daily life and death in such detail. Representational art was not only reserved for public buildings and luxury items, but extended to simple objects of everyday or personal use.

Fifty thematically organized cases offer a synthetic approach to the prehistory and history of the Aegean and mainland Greece societies. The journey through time focuses on the continuous stylistic transformations of Greek art, and explores the changing role of images in the course of ancient Greek history. The exhibition includes stone vessels, pottery, terracottas, marble sculptures and reliefs, bronzes, gold ornaments, glass, and a representative selection of seals and coins. 

Introductory and thematic panel texts, extensive captions, and touch screen presentations provide information about the major socio-political, technological, and cultural developments of each period.

Beyond aesthetic enjoyment, the exhibition is aimed to offer a fresh look into ancient Greek societies. Visitors are invited to view objects within their historical environment, and contemplate upon their symbolic dimensions and the power of images to carry messages of various types. Thus, the monumental vases of the Geometric period decorated with funerary or heroic scenes are seen not only as manifestations of technical command but also as carriers for clarity and order, a dynamic characteristic of Greek art. The rich warrior iconography on vases of the Archaic period is not presented only as evidence of warfare, but also as a reflection of the rising importance of hoplites in the social life of the Greek city-states, the primary Greek institution.

EXHIBITION CONTRIBUTORS 
| Curator: Dr. Nikolas Papadimitriou, Curator MCA
| Architectural Design: Anestei Parisi, Andromachi Skourogianni

1/6 Photo. Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
2/6 Photo. Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
3/6 Photo. Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
4/6 Photo. Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art
5/6
6/6

The permanent exhibition on the 4th floor of the Main Building tries to transform our knowledge about daily life in antiquity (as provided by ancient texts and archaeological objects) into vivid images. Visitors are invited into a virtual tour in time and space: the tour starts from the world of the supernatural (gods) and the myth (heroes), goes through the realm of Eros, follows the activities of everyday women and men in their private and public life, explores their religious behaviour, and concludes with their attitudes against death and their beliefs about afterlife and the Underworld. One hundred forty two objects - mostly dating to the Classical και Hellenistic periods (5th-1st c. BC) - are grouped in nine separate units treating the following thematic areas:

Gods and Heroes | On the wings of Eros | Toiletry and wedding | Female activities | Athletics The Symposium | In the Athenian Agora | Warfare | Taking care of the deceased

The exhibition is supported by ample graphics which are meant both to increase the overall aesthetic effect and to enhance public understanding of the various artifacts and their function. Each showcase has a frieze of drawings accompanied by explanatory texts which provide as much information as possible about the particular subject. In order to increase the educational character of the exhibition, two short movies have been made using advance shooting and sound-recording techniques. In the first movie, we see scenes from the life of a man, named Leon: his birth and childhood, his involvement in sporting activities, his military training, his participation in public affairs, the preparations for his marriage to Melite, and, finally, his departure for war. The second movie focuses on the death of the protagonist, as his relatives pay him the customary honours at his funeral. The tour concludes with a hypothetical painted reconstruction of an ancient 5th c. BC town (demos) on the coast of Attica, where the hero was born, lived and died, according to the scenario of the films.

EXHIBITION CONTRIBUTORS 
| Curators: Nicholas Chr. Stampolidis, Director MCA | Yorgos Tassoulas, Curator MCA
| Design: GPD Exhibitions & Museums | Boris Micka

OBJECTS

1/6 Terracotta Aphrodite Anadyomene // 2nd-1st c. BC // H. 8 cm // Athens Academy Collection, no. 89
2/6 Terracotta “Tanagra figurines” Late 4th-3rd c. BC H. 27.3 cm K. Politis Collection, no. 46
3/6 Fragment of a marble grave relief // 4th c. BC // L. 20 cm // K. Politis Collection, no. 137
4/6 Red-figure pelike // 450 b.C. - 440 b.C. // H. 37cm // N.P. Goulandris Collection, no. 1
5/6 Terracotta doll // ca. 490 BC // H. 12.5 cm // N.P. Goulandris Foundation, no. 142
6/6 Fragment of a terracotta relief plaque // Mid-7th c. BC // H. 12.5 cm // N.P. Goulandris Collection, 189

THEME PAGES

Geography
History
Minoan & Mycenaean Culture
Greek Colonisation
The Art
Αthletics & Death
Writing & Music
Ancient Craftsmanship
  • Video Material Strategic Partner

AUTHORS

Nicholas Papadimitriou
Curator MCA

Theoni Georgopoulou
Archaeologist – Museologist

Stavroula Oikonomou
Curator MCA

Maria Tolis
Archaeologist

Yorgos Tassoulas
Curator MCA

Eleni Markou
Archaeologist – Educational Department MCA

Allison Siegenthaler
Undergraduate student of Archaeology (2006)

Cody Gertz
Undergraduate student of Archaeology (2007)

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