Day 39 - Marble head from Pergamon

April 2, 2018

This introductory gallery (150) displays only seven objects, but they are a highly select sample of Greek art from the Neolithic to the Hellenistic period. The first object I see is a  female fertility figure with enormous buttocks dating from 4800-4400 B.C.E.- far older than anything I saw in the Egyptian wing. I learn that large kraters were, until about the 7th century B.C. E., used as grave markers and often included depictions of the stretched-out body of the deceased. This makes me realize that funerary rituals were a wellspring for art in many parts of the ancient world, not just Egypt. But did the Greeks gain inspiration from the Egyptians in some measure? 

Today's object is totally arresting - a 2 1/2 feet high fragment of a monumental marble head of a young man from the 2nd century B.C.E. found at Pergamon and on loan to the Met from the Staatliche Museum in Berlin. I hope it's a long-term loan, because the head is magnificent. What a dreamboat this guy must have been - and maybe even more sensual in his semi-ruined state because it leaves so much more to the imagination. His eyes have been almost completely lost, but his straight nose and slightly separated lips above  a lightly dimpled chin remind me of Elvis, as do the locks that curl down his nape. So sexy!  In fact, the figure may have been intended to represent a god (Apollo?) or Alexander the Great.  This was apparently one of several such heads that were set into roundels and adorned the walls of the gymnasium in Pergamon, where athletes and others trained and socialized.

It's good to start my explorations of classical art with something that appeals so strongly to my libido!

By the way, I learned, too, that I have not been utterly oblivious all these years to the two large statues in the Great Hall. They are also a relatively recent loan from Berlin.  Phew!