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Hey everybody! Welcome to the Ancient Art
Podcast. I'm your host, Lucas Livingston.
After many long months of anticipation, the
Art Institute of Chicago recently unveiled
the new Mary and Michael Jaharis Galleries
of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Art.
The new installation has quadrupled in size
and, with its fresh redesign, encompasses
the entire circuit overlooking the Art Institute's
open-air McKinlock Court. The long corridors
of the new Jaharis Galleries lined with Classical
treasures amidst bustling visitors almost
give me the feeling of hobnobbing among the
philosophers of an ancient Athenian stoa.
Ironically, with the increased space dedicated
to Greek, Roman, and Byzantine art, the Art
Institute's collection is not substantial
enough to fill it. Over a quarter of the approximately
550 works of art on display are on loan from
various private collections and other museums,
including the Oriental Institute and Smart
Museum of Art at the University of Chicago,
the Field Museum of Natural History, and the
Getty. [1]
The Jaharis Galleries are designed in part
by Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY Architecture,
although I'm not exactly sure which part,
as this design is a radical departure from
Yantrasast's earlier commission in the Art
Institute, the Roger and Pamela Weston Wing
of Japanese Art, featured in episode 34 of
the Ancient Art Podcast, Haniwa Horse and
Hokusai's Ghosts. The refined simplicity
and pedestrian-friendly layout of the Weston
Wing seems to have gotten lost in translation
from Japanese to Greek and Latin. You might
find yourself careening into fellow visitors
like a sailor dashed upon the Peloponnesian
crags, lured by the sirenic call of some Athenian
vase or Antonine portrait bust.
The galleries begin with two works that form
a bridge to other collections in the museum,
which broadly express inspirations for or
from the art of Classical antiquity. The c.
3000 BC Mesopotamian Statuette of a Striding
Figure on loan to the Art Institute reminds
us that Classical Civilization had one foot
firmly placed in the cultural heritage of
the Ancient Near East and Egypt, which we
have explored repeatedly in the Ancient Art
Podcast. [2]
The Art Institute's refreshingly modern Cycladic
Female Figurine from c. 2500 BC tantalizes
visitors emerging from the museum's Modern
Wing with a simplified elegance and abstraction
tantamount to Pablo Picasso. This reminds
us of Classical art's far-reaching fingers
in European Modernism and in other areas of
the collection, like 19th century American
sculpture found in the adjacent Classically-inspired
sculpture court [3], and in the Hellenized
art of ancient Gandhara seen in the adjacent
galleries of Asian art. [4]
One benefit of the aforementioned sea of display
cases is that the works have been relieved
of their punitive "time-out" in corners and
along the walls. I am especially delighted
now to see most objects fully in the round,
which had previously teased me for years with
only glimpses of their back sides. As a friend
and colleague put it: "There are some pretty
good derrieres in the ancient galleries!"
Truly spectacular is the brilliance of radiant
daylight streaming into the galleries—most
notably the Greek gallery. The powerfully
raking light beautifully highlights the subtle
engravings on the surface of the Greek vessels,
used by ancient painters to outline shapes
and figures to be filled in with slip and
pigment. It may cause something of an initial
fright to see powerful sunlight bearing down
on vividly colored 2,500 year-old treasures,
but take comfort in knowing that the clay-based,
fired colors of Ancient Greek ceramics are
not particularly sensitive to light. Furthermore,
a UV-light filtering film applied to the windows
eliminates the more dangerous part of the
light spectrum. [5]
Conspicuously absent from the Jaharis Galleries,
though, is the Art Institute's beloved collection
of Ancient Egyptian art. Gone is the world's
most beautiful Mummy of Paankhenamun. The
Statue of Ra-Horakhty has flown the coop.
Osiris must have fallen in his own trap door.
And that Middle Kingdom ship has sailed. With
the ancient art galleries quadrupling in size,
one can only wonder how there apparently wasn't
enough room for the Egyptian art. As the Egyptian
collection gathers dust in storage, its future
location within the Art Institute remains
a mystery. Perhaps they could take the initiative
and place it among the art of Africa? In the
mean time, I'll derive pleasure in pointing
out that the coin display cases throughout
the Jaharis Galleries are unabashedly pyramidal
in shape.
As you make your way around the corner from
Greek to Roman art, it's tempting to establish
a connection between ancient and modern. You
waltz among the graceful curves of Hellenistic
sculpture and vibrant primitivism of two bronze
Sardinian figurines and Etruscan pieces set
against the backdrop of the Art Institute's
gallery of public modern art in Chicago. This
include Calder, Miro, Picasso, and the famed
America Windows by Marc Chagall. Many of these
and other Modern artists looked to antiquity
as inspiration for their groundbreaking artistic
styles.
Happily, no longer is the collection of ancient
glass sequestered in its previous isolation
ward, but is now fully integrated and dispersed
throughout the Jaharis Galleries, serving
to help contextualize the art of glass in
the broader narrative of ancient civilization.
A delightful new promised gift to the Art
Institute is a collection of eight Roman mosaics
related to feasting and merriment. One of
my favorites is this charming fish on a platter.
The gentle smirk gracing its lips makes me
wonder if the fish was not entirely displeased
at being served for dinner. Or perhaps this
helped a particularly over-empathetic Roman
patron overcome his or her vegetarian inclinations.
And while mosaic tesserae are generally not
considered the most subtle of media, I am
nonetheless struck by the level of detail
in some of the designs. For example, the thoughtful
placement of differently colored tesserae
grants a simple sack the contrasting light
and shadow of folds and creases.
When in Rome ... the Roman gallery, that is,
be sure to head to the back corner, where
you'll find a little conservation nook with
pieces that recently underwent restoration
and an interesting video surveying the history
of the collection and conservation techniques.
Another multimedia feature you'll find dispersed
throughout the new galleries is an interactive
educational resource called LaunchPad installed
on 16 Apple iPads. LaunchPad goes beyond the
gallery labels, offering up a wealth of information
for selected objects including historical
context, form and function, method of manufacture,
and connections with other works in the museum's
collection. You could easily spend an hour
or two absorbed in LaunchPad alone.
Also on loan for an initial nine-month period
are 51 stunning works from the British Museum
organized in a special exhibition called Late
Roman and Early Byzantine Treasures from the
British Museum. As far as things go in the
museum world, that's a pretty lengthy period
for a temporary exhibition. We can be thankful
that the British Museum is remodeling their
Byzantine galleries, which permits American
audiences to become enriched by these treasures
across the pond over in "The Colonies." One
of the highlights of the British Museum loan
is the Lycurgus Cup, a fascinating 4th century
Roman luxury object. Made of dichroic glass,
meaning "two colors," the cup changes from
red, when light shines through the glass,
to green, when reflecting off the surface.
A clever lighting rig in the ceiling permits
you to see this magical transformation before
your very eyes.
So, with over 550 works in the new permanent
Jaharis Galleries of Greek, Roman, and Byzantine
Art, and the special exhibitions, we can look
forward to plenty of new fodder for this epic
adventure of the Ancient Art Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in. Don't forget to "like"
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Happy hunting and we'll see you next time
on the Ancient Art Podcast.
