Adventures Croatia recently attended an exhibition of Hellenistic Bronze Exhibit at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles
The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center, showcased Power and Pathos, an exhibition of Hellenistic bronze sculpture, from July 28 to November 1, 2015. It was the first noteworthy international exhibition to showcase nearly 50 of the most significant bronze sculptures around the Mediterranean region.
Because of their scarcity, Hellenistic bronze sculptures are mostly exhibited in museums as separate masterpieces. This exhibition, the biggest of its kind ever staged, attempted for the first time to display these artwork on a bigger scale.
The arrangements were made by Getty Museum in association with Washington’s National Gallery of Art, the Strozzi Palace in Florence and the Soprintendenza Archeologia della Toscana and supported by the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
Adventures Croatia paid a visit to the Getty Museum to witness this wonderful exhibit before its return back to Europe. Watch a short video here:
Sculptures of exceptional realism, emotional intensity and physical valor from the Hellenistic era made their mark all over the world. The era, from the period of the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC until the founding of Roman Empire in 31 BC, fuelled an explosion of artistic expression with the alloy of tin and copper. The artisans made use of bronze because of its reflective surface, ductility and ability to embrace the finest details. The sculptors also broke the conventions from the pedestal forms of the Classical canon and transformed their art into dynamic compositions, dazzling expressions of the human form, age and character. Minute detail and expressive forms created more pragmatic representation of physical and emotional condition – a ground-breaking combo of Power and Pathos that transformed the course of art history.
These large-scale bronze sculptures are rare survivors of the ancient times. Bronze was one of the most precious metals in the Hellenistic era and its precious metal was melted and reused. We get to see these amazing sculptures now only because they were recovered thousands of years later by divers and fishermen from the sea.
Bronze Highlight
“Croatian Apoxyomenos” was among a few of the most stunning undersea archaeological discoveries of the last two decades. It was recovered from the sea, near Lošinj, Croatia in 1999. The statue (192 cm high) represents an athlete cleaning off his body with a small scraper known as strigil. As per the archeologists, it was made in the 1st century BC in Greece.
Power and Pathos – rarest sculpture from the Hellenistic World displayed all 3 popular versions of the apoxyomenos, which were discovered at Ephesos, Turkey in 1898. The Croatian Apoxyomenos is preserved in the best way possible. As it was included in the exhibition at the Getty, Croatian Apoxyomenos marked its presence in the United States for the first time. Following its scheduled time in the exhibition, the national treasure of Croatia will return to a museum on the Island of Lošinj, newly constructed for this exhibit. You can request to view this and other ancient exhibits on Island of Lošinj on your next trip to Croatia.
