The Ancient Art Blog

the art you won't find in your textbook

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Silenus is unimpressed with your yoga instagram pic.

Attachment to a bronze vessel in the form of Silenus—satyr and erstwhile companion of Dionysus. Late 6th century BC, maybe from Thebes? Louvre museum.

[theancientartblog]

What Phoenicians mean when they say ‘woke up like this’.

Terracotta figurine with lion’s head from Tharros, thought to be 2nd or 1st c. BBCE. Cagliari, Museo Archeological Nazionale.

[theancientartblog]

Intricate animal and flower tattoos found on Egyptian mummy

Scholars excited by depiction of actual objects on the body of a 3,000-year-old woman.

Something to consider when choosing your body art: what will archaeologists of the future think about it?

[theancientartblog]

When deciding on a pet, ask yourself this: can it vanquish the eternal forces of chaos and darkness?

Re (in cat form) slaying the serpent Apophis (see Spell 17, Book of the Dead). Facsimile of a wall painting from the Tomb of Sennedjem, Deir el Medina. Early Dyn 19, ca. 13th cent. BC. Illustration source: Metropolitan Museum of Art

[theancientartblog]

Athena’s owl isn’t putting up with your nonsense anymore.

Athenian red-figure wine jar showing an owl as soldier, 410-390. Provenance unknown. Louvre Museum.

[theancientartblog]

The original bat kitty.

Marble base of a column, sitting in the cloister of Sé de Lisboa (Cathedral of Santa maria Maior de Lisboa). 14th century, maybe? Gothic architecture isn’t our area of expertise, so corrections welcome.

[theancientartblog]

Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.

Pair of eyes meant to be inlaid in a Bronze sculpture. Probably from Greece, ca. 5th century BC. Bronze, marble, grit, quartz, obsidian. Ht: 3.8 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art. Picture credit: http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255977

[theancientartblog]

Who needs legs when you have such an awesome belly?

Bronze furniture leg with Silenus atop the large foot of a four-toed animal. Probably from Alexandria, 1st c. BCE (purchased). Israel Museum.

[theancientartblog]

no cheating, girl.

Eros, Aphrodite, and Pan on the inner lid of a bronze mirror said to be from Corinth. British Museum 1888.1213.1-2, thought to be from ca. 350. Photo courtesy British Museum.

[theancientartblog]

We are the knights who say Ni!

Neolithic figurines. Budapest, Hungarian National Museum.

[theancientartblog]

This is what happens when you roll your drapery too thin.

Chalkoprateia, Church of the Theotokos, 5th c. CE, Archaeological Museum of Istanbul. 

[theancientartblog]

Phoenicians were minimalists before it was cool.

Limestone Sarcophagus of Queen Batnu’am, from Byblos (Lebanon). Inscription reads: “In this sarcophagus: I, Batnu’am, mother of king Uzziba’al, king of Byblos, son of Palletiba’al, priest of Ba’alat. I am lying in a garment with headgear over me, and there is a golden plate at my mouth, like the queens who have been before me.” First half of the 4th cent. BC. Beirut, National Museum. 

[theancientartblog]

A throne on which you cannot sit. Unless, of course, you’re Ashtart.

Ashtart throne from the Sanctuary of Eshmun at Bostan esh-Sheikh (near Sidon). Early Hellenistic. Beirut, Lebanese national Museum.

[theancientartblog]

Houston, I’m ready for take-off! ‘Lady of Baza’, Limestone sculpture (really an anthropomorphic cinerary urn) from Grave 155, Baza (Granada). 4th cent. BC. Museo Arqueologico Nacional, Madrid

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Something in her eyes says . . . wait, what? (googley-eyed female figure. Ptoion, Boeotia. Local stone. Late 7th c. BC. National Archaeological Museum, Athens. The googley eyes are really there, look closely)

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Go home, owl. You’re drunk. 

(Red-figure squat lekythos. 5th cent. BC. National Museum, Athens)

[theancientartblog]

Sooooo, Serapis-Amon. Is there something you would like to share with the group? 

(Copper statuette of Serapis-Amon, a cthonic deity originating in Greco-Roman period Egypt, in human-snake form with rams horns on his head. National Museum, Athens)