Great art for everyday people

Pieces in the exhibit ''Magna Graecia'' come from ordinary people's lives, revealing universal concerns that underpin human art throughout time.

By LENNIE BENNETT
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 9, 2003

[Courtesy Tampa Museum of Art] Detail from tomb painting, c. 350 B.C., limestone and plaster, painted, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Paestum.

TAMPA -- These were not always objects in glass cases. They were enjoyed in homes, worn on bodies, revered in places of worship. They were the stuff of real lives.

"Magna Graecia," at the Tampa Museum of Art, is an exhibit full of such artifacts, which, because of their historical significance or inherent beauty, are considered fine art and can be appreciated on those merits. But remembering the human connection adds dimension and texture to enjoying them.

The objects span four centuries of Greek colonization in southern Italy and Sicily, and the distinctions between the objects from each era were, for their times, as obvious as those between Tiffany and Steuben glass or a Rodin sculpture and one by Henry Moore would be to us.

There are enough tantalizing hints in "Magna Graecia" to give us a sense of these people for whom the cult of perfection shaped every aspect of existence. But my advice is to hook up with a docent tour (they aren't regularly scheduled, so call the museum for times) or rent an audio tape for $5. Either will give you a lot of information about what you're seeing.

The show is arranged by region in Italy, not chronologically as are most exhibitions of this kind, which is important as you compare decorative nuances. The reason for this arrangement is that the 80 items are on loan from eight regional Italian museums that have collections largely based on excavations from their areas. Organizers adopted the same "they stay where they lay" philosophy in putting the show together. So, in the area designated for the museum in Syracuse in southeast Sicily, for example, you will find a tiny, exquisitely carved ivory fragment of a woman in a static pose from the mid fifth century B.C. juxtaposed with a small bronze female figure with more fluid movement in her stance, cast 100 years later. Both are examples of stylistic traits popular when they were made.

Lion vessel, c. 600-575 B.C., terra cotta, painted, Museo Archeologico Regionale “Paolo Orsi” di Siracusa.

The star of "Magna Graecia" shines as soon as you approach the galleries' threshold. Youth of Agrigento (none of the works is titled, just identified as to place of origin or function) stands in solitary splendor, "the finest example of fifth century B.C. Greek sculpture outside of Athens," said Aaron J. Paul, curator of Greek and Roman art at the museum. "And that's an understatement."

No matter that his hands, feet and nose have been shorn off, probably the result of indifferent treatment and the ravages of time. The near perfection of the polished marble on the body and the skill an anonymous sculptor used in capturing its musculature are simply beautiful. The statue, which Minerva, The International Review of Art and Archaeology calls "the most important classical sculpture known," spans two eras. Its slight smile is in the style of the earlier archaic period; "the archaic smile," as it's called, is seen on other figures throughout the galleries. The stance, suggesting motion, looks ahead to the classical period. In the carefully coiffed hair, its smooth coils wrapped and tied behind perfectly formed ears, you can still see remnants of the original paint. (Statuary usually was painted vibrant colors in those days.)

The statue is smaller than life-size and was probably one of many of its kind once found in a temple dedicated to Demeter, goddess of fertility. These "votives" were expressions of thanks or possibly homages to a deity such as Apollo. Many were reduced to rubble when the Greek city-states fell to Roman rule; those that survived were destroyed in the Middle Ages when marble was burned to extract its lime, and bronze was melted and recycled. This statue was found in a cistern. Who knows why it was tossed there, but it saved the Youth of Agrigento for history.

The exhibition is full of such stories. A small side gallery is dominated by several large terra cotta altars from Gela, in southeast Sicily. All are circa 500-475 B.C., and all were found in what was once a commercial district. Archaeologists believe they were buried together by an earthquake before they could be placed in temples.

The most dramatic is of the Gorgon Medusa. Her leering, toothy smile and bulging eyes are depicted in statuary throughout the show, the most famous example in a large tablet from Syracuse with its original paint. Forget the wavy-haired beauty from Roman myths adopted as a Versace logo. This older version was one scary beast, and meant to be so, even though she is shown lovingly cradling her progeny, son Chrysaor and the winged horse Pegasus.

Throughout the exhibition are examples of the Greeks' ingenuity with clay, the humble material they used more often than expensive imported marble in their statuary and household objects. In their artists' hands, it was molded and carved to look as if wrought from stone.

Painted vessels are ubiquitous in most exhibitions of Greek art. Many are in this show but only a few examples of the red-figure and black-figure genre that usually come to mind. The clay of southern Italy was whiter, so indigenous pottery is pale; red clay objects were imported from Athens. (For more of them, walk down the hall to the museum's permanent collection of Greek art.)

The enormous "krater" from the fifth century B.C., made in and sent from Athens, is a beauty. It was used as a giant punch bowl -- what parties it must have witnessed -- painted with scenes from Homer's epics, a reminder that those stories of long-ago heroes continued to be important.

[Courtesy Tampa Museum of Art] Altar with Gorgon, Pegasus and Chrysaor, c. 500-475 B.C., terra cotta, painted, Museo Archeologico Regionale di Gela.

On one side, Prince Eleusis receives the knowledge of agriculture from Demeter (remember that this area was known for its fertile olive groves, grape vineyards and fields of grain). On the reverse, Zeus hears the pleas of two mothers, Eos and Thetis, for their sons' lives. (Both eventually died in the Trojan War.)

The characters are identified in barely discernible Greek letters on the vase, an unusual detail and a mark of ancient snobbery. Literacy was not common at that time, and decorative household objects with such lettering were a mark of cultivation and education. The krater was found in a tomb, probably to remind the departed of good times past and offer the hope of more in the afterlife.

Most of the personal items in the exhibition came from tomb excavations, and their contents reflect the area's great prosperity. The tombs of Taranto, on the northeast tip of Italy's "heel," yielded a trove of delicately crafted gold jewelry set with gems or carved chalcedony.

A rare find was a group of terra cotta female figurines in a single tomb, animated as if dancing at a party or posed with bunches of grapes or birds, much of their painted surfaces intact, a bevy of companions to placate the gods and provide company for a beloved relative. One of them, draped and gracefully resting on a rock, could appear to be, had it been rendered in porcelain, an 18th century European piece.

That quality of timelessness is one of the richest lessons this exhibition provides us. In the strongly drawn profiles of women on a tomb painting found in Paestum from 350 B.C. are faces Picasso would have loved. In the whorls of a bronze mirror from fifth century B.C. Reggio Calabria are stylized embellishments favored by art deco craftsmen.

In the detailing of a seventh century B.C. painted terra cotta lion from Syracuse, designed as a container for perfume, is sophistication and ethnicity that could have been inspiration for costumes in the Broadway production of The Lion King. In these and so many other objects, we see the line drawn through the centuries, a continuum of human creativity.

REVIEW: "Magna Graecia: Greek Art from South Italy and Sicily," Tampa Museum of Art, 600 N Ashley Drive, through April 20. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. the third Thursday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission: $7 adults, discounts for others ($1 off coupon available at museum Web site). Audio tape tour is $5. (813) 274-8130 or www.tampamuseum.com.

Lectures in conjunction with the show include one at 2 p.m. today by Dr. Mario Iozzo, director of the Center for Conservation in Florence. He was instrumental in bringing these treasures to the United States. Free with museum admission.

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