After visiting the Egyptian gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art, I continued on to the rooms of ancient Greek and Roman art.
There are quite a number of Greek vases in the collection.
This is a "krater", a vessel for mixing wine and water. It is decorated with paintings of drunken revelers. Most painters of vases did not sign their work and are known by names assigned to them by modern scholars. Since this vase is considered the unknown artist's most important work, he is referred to as the "Cleveland painter". Other vases by the "Cleveland painter" are found in museums in New York, Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen, Greece and Rome.
This "krater" is painted with scenes from the tragedy "Medea" by the dramatist Euripides.
These ornaments representing satyrs are known as "antefixes". They were used to cap the ends of roof tiles to keep wind, water and pests from entering the building.
The museum is very proud of this large statue of Apollo which it acquired in 2004.
It is almost certainly the work of the famous sculptor Praxiteles. The Roman writer Pliny the Elder described a work by Praxiteles which portrays Apollo about to stab a lizard with an arrow. In a showcase next to the statue are part of a missing arm (the hand positioned as if it were holding an arrow) and a strange creature that looks like a snake with legs.
Analysis has proven that these parts belonged to the main statue, and that the sculpture dates back to the 4th century B.C., the time in which Praxiteles lived. The museum's director has said that the masterpiece is "arguably the greatest ancient sculpture in a North American public collection."
Continuing to the Roman gallery this monumental bronze statue takes center stage.
It is probably a sculpture of the emperor / philosopher Marcus Aurelius.
Behind Marcus Aurelius is a collection of Roman busts and heads.
A marble statue of Hercules
A mosaic depicting a tigress and her cubs
This marble sarcophagus is carved with scenes from the story of Orestes, in Greek mythology the son of King Agamemnon.
There is more to come from the Cleveland Museum of Art in future posts.
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