Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art

Beautiful exhibition at the British Museum looking at the human body in Greek art.

The first room was quite bare except for the stars of the show. Three fabulous statues by famous students of Ageladas as well as recently found bronze of an wrestler cleaning themselves after a fight. I had been to a lecture by one of the curators just before I went round and she had talked about the contrast in tension which made a great statue with the whole thing being about balance and contrast between tense and relaxed muscles. All of these were perfect examples.

This was a beautifully presented exhibition and I liked the way it used some of the Elgin marbles putting them back into the context in which they were made. It was interesting to see a room about how the figures would have been coloured. They look so garish to our eyes. I prefer them plain but then I have a hardened old Western art historic eye!

There was an interesting section on drapery. Apart from statues of Venus women were not shown naked but some of the figures with drapery were almost as revealing. I loved a small bronze of a dancing girl completed coverer in drapes but you could see a perfect outline of her legs and the pose was beautiful.

I also loved a figure of an acrobat on a crocodile near the end with perfect little feet.

The whole thing was so beautiful that by the end I wasn’t taking in what it was trying to tell me and show me as the objects themselves were just so lovely. I need to go back again and so the tape tour and concentrate a bit more at the end.

Reviews
Guardian
Independent
Evening Standard

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my...
Read more

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B...
Read more

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was ...
Read more