Something I came to learn about myself, during my wanderings around these old European cities, is that I tend to have a better time at museums of fine arts than I do at museums that hold artifacts. Sure, some artifacts are interesting, but a lot of the times, places like the British museum - or, for that matter, the Pitt Rivers, at Oxford - feel more like a big lost and found room than a museum. That being said, however, every now and again, something unexpected happens. I started with the Altes museum at Museum Island because I expected it to contain Greek vases and Roman sculptures and not much else, and therefore, I anticipated a quick visit. When I was there, however, I was surprisingly bit by the classicism bug, and I left with an urge to dust off my copy of I, Claudius and re read the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
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| The Altes Museum, in berlim |
1. Medea Sarcophagus
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| Medea Sarcophagus |
The Sarcophagus of Medea immediately
caught my eye, as soon as I saw the intricate and detailed stone
carvings. These figures tell the story of Medea, who fell in love with
Jason, only to then see him leave her for Creusa, because he alleged to
have fallen in love with the latter instead. Medea pretended to be okay
with that, and gifted Creusa with clothes, which burned the woman's body
when she wore them. In her revenge, Medea would kill her own children - because they are also children of Jason.
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| Look at how detailed the signs of aging are in this figure. It's so easy to forget that this isn't actually a person, it isn't even a photograph or a painting... it's just stone, with some bits removed. |
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| Creusa, when she's burning and her father behind her, experiencing the despair of watching his daughter burn alive. |
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| Medea, looking at her children, already plotting to kill them. |
2. Goddesses and Consorts
One of the exhibitions I got to see was entitles Goddesses and Consorts, an exhibition with a focus on women in classic antiquity, and in particular, an attempt to shift the focus from seeing them as merely consorts and lovers of ancient gods and heroes.
I did not really appreciate the way the exhibition was curated - for all their talk of opening minds to a new interpretation of the old myths, the texts next to each of the pieces were clearly trying to steer me on a specific direction, and they were less informative than opinionated, which is never good in the context of a museum.
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| This carving depicts Zeus going to Leda as a Swan... The text was as doctrinaire as the others, but I do think it's something worth thinking about, how come a story as bizarre as this even exists... I wonder if there are gender flipped versions of this myth, where a woman deceives a man by appearing as an animal. |
On their website they point out that "three of the most revered (female figures) – Athena, Aphrodite and Artemis – transgress, each in their own way, certain normative boundaries and are apparently not subject to them." Okay. I don't disagree, but is this really groundbreaking in any way? Masculinity is associated to superiority in much of the literature and mythology of the West, that is why most remarkable female characters are remarkable precisely because they break free from the "shackles of womanhood" - such as Athena, Aphrodite and Artemis as they aptly point out, but this is a tendency that persists all the way to Elizabeth Bennet and Hermione Granger. Furthermore, some of their "modern takes" on ancient myths seemed entirely absurd to me (like seeing Medusa as a "feminist icon", for instance!?!?). All things considered, booktube has discussions about "what it means to give Penelope a voice to tell her own story" that are more profound than anything at the Altes, and what does that tell us about the curation of that exhibition?
Be that as it may, I came across figures that I had not really heard of
(or at least I don't remember reading about them) before, such as
Atalanta, who was abandoned by her father as a child (because he wanted a
son), and joined the entourage of Artemis, and Omphale, the queen to
which Heracles was enslaved as punishment. I always enjoy coming across
things that make me curious to read more, to go a little deeper, and so,
because of this, I can't say the exhibit was a total disappointment.
3. Portraits of Emperors
Something else that was cool were
the busts and statues of emperors. It's so cool that we know what those
people looked like, despite it being so long ago, because there were
artists committing their likenesses to stone.
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| Bust of Marcus Aurelius as a young man |
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| Bust of Caracala |
4. Oh the Greek vases...
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| The bottom of this vase shows Achiles looking after Patroclus' injuries. I found it kind of nice, seeing this moment of one friend taking care of the other |
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| Achilles and Atlas playing a board game. Cool in no small part because I have become super into board games since I started my DPhil... Also, the reflex of my audio-guide on the glass photo-bombed the picture |
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