Day 49 - Hellenistic Zeus Ammon
April 30, 2018
Gallery 160 has a relatively small number of works from the Hellenistic period and is dominated by a portion of a huge column taken from the temple of Artemis at Sardis. The column, with its Ionic capital, was originally about 60 feet tall; the fragment in the museum, while less than a third that size, is still imposing. There are also some large kraters for mixing wine and water and ceremonial vessels for holding water that come from Puglia, a reminder of southern Italy's Greek past. I wish we were going to Paestum or Segesta on our upcoming trip; Agrigento will have to suffice.
I realize that I need to revise my impression of Hellenistic art as highly emotionally expressive. Some is, some isn't. I see a lot of continuity with the classical tradition, with its emphasis on idealized forms and emotional reserve. I also can't help but contrast the relatively brief efflorescence of Greek art (a few hundred years) with the millennia spanned by Egyptian art.
I chose today's object because of the cultural mash-up it represents. It's a marble head, perhaps two feet high, of Zeus Ammon from the Roman period, ca. 120-160 C.E., and said to have been found at the mouth of the Nile River. Zeus is depicted as powerful and movie-star handsome, with a high brow, piercing gaze, flowing locks, and curly beard; a mustache tops his slightly open lips. All this is pretty conventional. What isn't standard is that he's also shown wearing a ram's horns that lie curved and flat atop his head. (They are more visible from the side than straight on.) The ram's horns were adopted from the Egyptian god Ammon, aka Amun.
I also am struck by the thought that I may be looking at the kind of image that Alexander the Great beheld when, in 331 B.C.E., he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Zeus Ammon that was located in an oasis in the Libyan desert and was already famous during Alexander's time.
I realize that I need to revise my impression of Hellenistic art as highly emotionally expressive. Some is, some isn't. I see a lot of continuity with the classical tradition, with its emphasis on idealized forms and emotional reserve. I also can't help but contrast the relatively brief efflorescence of Greek art (a few hundred years) with the millennia spanned by Egyptian art.
I chose today's object because of the cultural mash-up it represents. It's a marble head, perhaps two feet high, of Zeus Ammon from the Roman period, ca. 120-160 C.E., and said to have been found at the mouth of the Nile River. Zeus is depicted as powerful and movie-star handsome, with a high brow, piercing gaze, flowing locks, and curly beard; a mustache tops his slightly open lips. All this is pretty conventional. What isn't standard is that he's also shown wearing a ram's horns that lie curved and flat atop his head. (They are more visible from the side than straight on.) The ram's horns were adopted from the Egyptian god Ammon, aka Amun.
I also am struck by the thought that I may be looking at the kind of image that Alexander the Great beheld when, in 331 B.C.E., he made a pilgrimage to the shrine of Zeus Ammon that was located in an oasis in the Libyan desert and was already famous during Alexander's time.
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