Day 57 - Scylla medallion
June 14, 2018
Again, I've muffed the gallery numbers, partly as a result of misleading (to me) arrows indicating room numbers, more importantly because I didn't look at the map beforehand. The real gallery 163 is a room I never even knew existed - it's lodged behind a staircase - but what a treasure trove it houses. I would have described the contents as Hellenistic decorative arts, but the caption describes the gallery as presenting "luxury arts," and given the quality of the items of gold and glass and bronze on display, I wouldn't quarrel with that designation.
Many objects compete for my attention, among them two beautiful twisted gold armbands representing female and male tritons and a silver rhyton with a handle in the form of a horse's leaping forequarters. I also admire: terracotta statuettes of Nike shown flying; a bronze statuette of a nude male dancing, his body twisted in a contrapposto position; and another bronze statuette of a veiled female dancer whose raised arm and extended hip remind me of a much larger dancing figure in the Indian art collection here.
Today's object, though, is a gilt-silver medallion from 3rd century B.C.E. "southern Italy or Sicily" (hey, I thought Sicily was part of southern Italy, but I guess they mean the southern Italian mainland). The medallion depicts Scylla, about whom I just learned earlier this week; maybe I chose this object largely because it consolidates that leaning. The medallion is about 4 1/2 inches in diameter and finely worked in repousse' (at least I think that's what the technique is called). Scylla is shown rising from the waves, indicated by little spirals, and she is flanked on either side by dolphins. She is nude above the pubis; her belly is softly rounded, and a tress of her gilded hair curls down around her torso. But below her navel, her body is transformed from that of a woman to that of a monster. Three dogs spring from her hips; the one on the left appears to be snarling. Her arms are raised above her head (the better to reveal her breasts, I suspect), and she grasps a large rock to hurl down on passing sailors. It's a striking, unforgettable depiction of the theme.
Many objects compete for my attention, among them two beautiful twisted gold armbands representing female and male tritons and a silver rhyton with a handle in the form of a horse's leaping forequarters. I also admire: terracotta statuettes of Nike shown flying; a bronze statuette of a nude male dancing, his body twisted in a contrapposto position; and another bronze statuette of a veiled female dancer whose raised arm and extended hip remind me of a much larger dancing figure in the Indian art collection here.
Today's object, though, is a gilt-silver medallion from 3rd century B.C.E. "southern Italy or Sicily" (hey, I thought Sicily was part of southern Italy, but I guess they mean the southern Italian mainland). The medallion depicts Scylla, about whom I just learned earlier this week; maybe I chose this object largely because it consolidates that leaning. The medallion is about 4 1/2 inches in diameter and finely worked in repousse' (at least I think that's what the technique is called). Scylla is shown rising from the waves, indicated by little spirals, and she is flanked on either side by dolphins. She is nude above the pubis; her belly is softly rounded, and a tress of her gilded hair curls down around her torso. But below her navel, her body is transformed from that of a woman to that of a monster. Three dogs spring from her hips; the one on the left appears to be snarling. Her arms are raised above her head (the better to reveal her breasts, I suspect), and she grasps a large rock to hurl down on passing sailors. It's a striking, unforgettable depiction of the theme.
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