Things have completely turned around in the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden. The museum urgently needed to renovate its building and kept its doors closed for seven months. The curators seized this opportunity to present a large part of the collection differently. The halls with the material culture of the ancient Greeks, Etruscans and Romans have been given a new look. Kennislink seemed worth a visit.
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Praying man
Praying man. Bronze, Greek, 1580-1475 BC, found on Crete, h. 14 cm. This statue is the oldest bronze object in the Greco-Roman collection of the National Museum of Antiquities. It was made in Crete, at the time of Minoan civilization, which existed between 2000 and 1450 BC. had its greatest bloom. It was found near the ruins of the palace of Phaistos. The man presented is wearing a loin apron and a flat hat. He holds his hands over his chest and face so that it looks like he is praying. (Text:National Museum of Antiquities)
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Male head of Cyprus
Male portrait, limestone, fifth century BC, found in Cyprus, h. 34 cm. This portrait was once part of a life-size statue. The statue was probably set up at a temple or shrine, as a gift to the deity worshiped there. It was expensive because of its large dimensions. The donor must have belonged to one of the wealthiest families in fifth-century Cyprus. In that period, the island was under the rule of the Persians, who, in addition to their authority, also took their visual and formal language with them to the Greek world. That is shown in this portrait. In addition to the typical Greco-Archaic style features such as the almond-shaped eyes and 'archaic' smile, the man has a stylized wavy beard and hairstyle, in keeping with the fashion of the Persian court of the time. This statue is new in the collection, and was specially purchased because it beautifully depicts the interaction between different cultures. (Text:National Museum of Antiquities)
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Naked Venus
Venus. Marble, Greek, 300-100 BC, h. 60 cm.The first realistically rendered nude female statue in history is the Aphrodite (Latin:Venus) by the famous sculptor Praxiteles, from the fourth century BC. The goddess is about to take a bath and tries to hide her nakedness with one hand. Many nude Venus statues were made in imitation, such as this one of the Venus Capitolina type, in which the goddess holds both hands protectively in front of her body. (Text:National Museum of Antiquities)
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Drunk Dionysus
Dionysus. Marble, Hellenistic, ca. 100 AD, found in Izmir (Turkey), h. 81 cm. This head was once part of a colossal statue of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine. The great liveliness of his flowing hair and his emotional facial expression with open mouth and hollow eyes are typical of Hellenistic sculpture. (Text:National Museum of Antiquities)
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Gift Anna Paulowna
Osiris Canopus. Alabaster, Hellenistic, first century AD, found in Tivoli (Italy), h. 60 cm. In the Egyptian city of Canopus, Osiris was worshiped in the form of a decorated vase with a god's head. The vase symbolizes the fertile Nile water. This special vase from Hellenistic Egypt was found in the villa of Emperor Hadrian in Tivoli. As a great lover of Egypt, he had a part of the city of Canopus reconstructed there. In 1846 Pope Pius IX presented the vase to Queen Anna Paulowna during her visit to the Papal State. On loan:Royal Collections, The Hague. (Text:National Museum of Antiquities)
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Askist Etruscans
Ask box. Alabaster, Etruscan, 200-50 BC, found in Volterra (Italy), 92.5 × 77 × 26 cm. The Etruscans greatly admired the art, culture and mythology of the Greeks. This can also be seen on this chest. The relief on the front shows a scene from the Odyssey:on the left Odysseus escapes from the cave of the one-eyed and man-eating Polyphemos, on the right he flees with his men in a boat. It is striking that the Etruscan goddess Vanth assists them. (Text:National Museum of Antiquities)
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Roman Pan
Pan. Marble, Roman, 50-350 AD, h. 109.8 cm. The nature god Pan is depicted as a naked boy, with horns on his head. In his left hand he holds a pan flute, in the right a shepherd's staff. The youthful god stands in a classical counterpost pose, an invention of the Greek sculptors in the fifth century BC. His weight rests on his right leg, the left leg is placed obliquely to the side. This gives his body a slight dynamic curve. This statue is a Roman copy, made after a Greek original by the sculptor Polykleitos. (Text:National Museum of Antiquities)
When you enter the museum, at first glance, not much seems to have changed. The authentic temple of Isis is still in its place in the Temple Hall and behind the cash register you will find the familiar tables with nice books. To see the changes you have to go a little further into the museum. On the first and second floors, where the changing exhibitions used to be, are now the rooms with the material culture of the ancient Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. Whoever comes for the ancient Egyptians is out of luck. This room is not yet finished and will only open again in 2017.
Curator Ruurd Halbertsma is going to give a tour, but first explains that the exhibition makers were inspired by rhythm, rhythmos for the design. in ancient Greek. An art object only moves the viewer when it appears to be in motion, according to philosopher Aristotle. In terms of content, the word 'context' is central and by this Halbertsma means the interaction between the Greek, Etruscan and Roman cultures. The cultures and therefore the objects in the collection are not separate from each other, but have influenced each other. This context is the largest substantive change that the halls have undergone. It is mainly a new arrangement of the existing collection, including some new items that have been purchased because they show the context nicely. Time to see if we can find the rhythm and context.
Fantasy World
To start at the beginning, we climb the stairs to the second floor. This room is dedicated to ancient Greece. In the period from about 3000-500 BC. Greek culture was mainly influenced by other cultures from the Mediterranean with which the Greeks traded. Egyptian sculpture inspired Greek artists to create the typically rigid statues in Egyptian tradition. The Greek pottery from this period also shows influences from other regions. Typical Corinthian from this period is the use of strange and personal, like a Greek horseman in an oriental fantasy world with sphinxes and lions. The wine jug that depicts this is new in the collection and specially purchased for this reopening.
This first room is geographically arranged, with a large, moving projection on the floor in the middle. The expanding trade routes from these centuries can be seen alternately, and the products that resulted. The objects are largely in display cases, but can be viewed from all sides and beautifully lit.
Motion images
If you want to go to the second part of the Greek period, you have to leave the rest of the second floor to the left and go back to the stairs. The Greek role of inspiration is highlighted on the first floor. From about 500 BC. Golden times dawn for the Greeks and they dominate the Mediterranean. This room shows how they have influenced other cultures, as far as India. The robes that the monks in Tibet still wear today, for example, are derived from the clothing of the Greeks from the time of Alexander the Great, says Halbertsma.
Upon entering this room you will immediately come across a huge collection of beautiful vases. These vases tell stories from the lives of the gods, or about famous athletes during the Olympic Games. They are organized by subject, not chronology. Before the reopening of the room, a lot of research was done into these vases and into the restoration history since 1818, the year the museum was founded.
The central part of the space is arranged as a sculpture gallery, which clearly shows how sculpture has changed since the rigid Egyptian pose. Sculptors made images as realistic as possible by depicting them in motion. They even tried to outdo nature by creating more than perfect bodies.
Dovecote for the dead
From this room you enter the gallery with objects from the material culture of the Etruscans, which forms the connection with the Roman room. You can see the influence of the Greeks on the Etruscans, who then pass it on to the Romans.
Walking on to the Romans, you'll come across another sculpture gallery, placed in front of a map showing the extent of the influence of Roman culture. The columbarium, . is touching the dovecote with ashes and epitaphs of the deceased. For example from one Flavia, who commemorates her husband with whom she never had a fight during their twelve-year marriage. Or the slave, who died just before his planned release.
“New in this Roman room are two tritons or sea gods, originally from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam,” says Halbertsma. “There they were in the depot like Italian objects from the 16 e century, but it turned out to be Roman. The tritons are mounted on tubes for the chariot's drawbar, the rod to which the horses were attached. Gauls and Celts often buried the entire chariot, but because this took quite a bit of work, deceased warriors later only got the tritons with them in the grave."
Final verdict
In all rooms you will find general information on large and clear text boards on the walls and more specifically with the objects themselves. If you want to know more, you can hire an audio tour. There is a special audio tour for children, because the set-up is not specifically aimed at children:it is clearly not a play museum.
To return for a moment to rhythm and context, the second can be clearly seen in particular. The new arrangement nicely illustrates how the different cultures in the Mediterranean have influenced each other and in particular the connection between the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans. The rhythm, which according to the museum should be visible 'in the harmony of colors and light, surprising arrangements and moments of rest and contemplation' is more difficult to recognize. It applies more to one room than to another, but imagine it, rhythm… Which does not mean that the new arrangement in the museum has not been successful, on the contrary. Especially the two rooms about the ancient Greeks have become very beautiful.
Everywhere the information is clear without being excessive and the big plus is the visibility and tangibility of the artefacts. You are right on top of everything and not everything is behind glass. The tendency to touch objects that the ancient Greeks and Romans also touched is tempting. You are just one step away from the greats of history.