A gritty realism was
characteristic of Roman sculpture from the First Century BC.
This male head, once incorrectly identified as Julius Caesar,
comes from Minturnae in Italy where the University Museum
conducted excavations from 1931-33.
Worlds
Intertwined:
By Karla Klein Albertson
PHILADELPHIA, PENN. -- Relics of ancient civilizations seem
eternal and immutable, but museum curators realize that the
fashion in which they are displayed must be updated periodically
to appeal to succeeding generations.
The Romanesque brick structure is sheltered on the campus of a
distinguished educational institution that dates back to
pre-Revolutionary times. Benjamin Franklin, eternal in bronze,
greets Penn students on the way to class, and the weight of
tradition is everywhere apparent. In the museum, however, the
displays of ancient art are now quite up-to-date, thanks to a
multimillion dollar renovation of the Greek, Etruscan and Roman
galleries that debuted in March under the title "Worlds
Intertwined."
The Rodney S. Young Gallery devoted to the Ancient Greek World
has actually been open in its new incarnation since 1994, but the
Etruscan and Roman galleries that frame it and "intertwine" with
it were only completed this spring under the guidance of
classical archaeologist Irene Bald Romano, who is the project's
co-curator and coordinator. The Etruscan Gallery is named after
the late Bryn Mawr College Professor Kyle M. Phillips, Jr, who
excavated in Tuscany at Murlo near Siena and the Roman Gallery --
funded with the support of the local Italian American community
-- after distinguished son of Italy and Philadelphia citizen
Andrew N. Farnese.
With only one glance, a student of museology can date a gallery's
installation to the decade in which it was executed, as certainly
as an English ceramics dealer can date his old Worcester. Baby
boomers will remember the ancient galleries of their childhood in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art or Museum of Fine Arts in Boston,
where an endless succession of polished wooden vitrines -- highly
collectible in themselves these days -- displayed thousands of
tersely-labeled Egyptian scarabs or Greek vases. While this was
truly awesome in the more-is-better fashion of the times, such an
array would be quite out of style today.
One of the most spectacular displays in the new Etruscan
installation at the University Museum is this crested bronze
helmet found in a late Eighth Century tomb at Narce in Italy.
Prior to the recent project, the Roman world at Penn had been
untouched since the 1950s and not since the 1920s had the
Etruscan artifacts been displayed with anything like the
completeness now on view. This last point is crucial, stresses
Irene Romano: "We have the best collection of Etruscan material
in the United States. These tomb groups from various Etruscan
sites were among the founding collections of the museum. The very
comprehensive collection, which includes material from Narce and
Vulci, was formed at the end of the Nineteenth Century.
Characteristic of this museum, we didn't buy just that one
special vase; we bought everything from that tomb group so we
could reconstruct the whole history of the culture."
Unlike the bad old days of cryptic labels, the curator explains
how the modern museum strives to make the material accessible to
the public: "There is a lot of text, which is characteristic of
how we present things, from major text on the largest panels down
to the details on the labels, so you can read as little or as
much as you want. We've put out not all, but much of the contents
of the warrior's tomb from Narce and a lady's tomb, which we
think is his wife's because they share a pottery vessel in common
which depicts a human figure between two horses."
People often use the expression "mysterious Etruscans" because
there is still much we do not know about this culture that
flourished in the Tuscan towns north of Rome from the Seventh
Century BC until the end of that millennium during the heydays of
the Greek city states and the Roman Republic. Romano points out,
"We understand the language -- it's certainly translatable -- but
we still don't quite understand where the Etruscans came from.
The language was in Italy before the Latin tribes entered. It's a
non-Indo European language; Basque, Finnish and Hungarian are the
other three."
If visitors press a button they can hear archaeologist Jean
MacIntosh Turfa read an Etruscan inscription that sounds rather
soothing -- like Arwen Evenstar speaking Elvish in The Lord of
the Rings. An illuminated map of the trading reach of the
Etruscan world also helps modern travelers understand how the
civilization acquired its luxury goods, such as amber for jewelry
from the Baltic region.
If the Etruscans were famous seafarers and traders, they also
were ardent collectors with a passion for imported Greek pottery.
So many Greek vases came out of Etruscan tombs that excavators
once thought that they were made in Italy. In fact, they were
made in Greece, sometimes with modifications designed to appeal
to the Etruscan market, much as England and France made ceramics
for the American market during the Nineteenth Century.
Many of the tombs found in Italy were painted with scenes of
banqueting, drinking and dancing, which give an idealized or
"perfect afterlife" record of the Etruscans at play. By ancient
standards, the women of the culture led fairly liberated lives,
reclining alongside their husbands to dine. In addition to their
favorite decorated Greek pots, the Etruscans were buried with
jewelry, bronze figures, armor and the shining black bucchero
pottery they made in their own kilns.
The attractive presentation of artifacts, descriptive labels and
interactive displays in the new University Museum galleries help
it serve the diverse segments of the community that make use of
the institution ranging from school children to scholars. "The
last major renovation of this space was in the 1950s and it was
used to display only a few pieces of sculpture," says Romano. "We
have 30,000 pieces in the Mediterranean section permanent
collections and while a lot is still in storage, we do have 1,400
pieces out now, which is a very high percentage for this museum."
This lid from a pyxis, or circular jar, is decorated in the
Attic red figure technique with added white color for accent,
circa 400-390 BC.
The new Guide to the Etruscan and Roman Worlds available
for purchase at the museum opens with a fascinating chapter on
how these permanent collections were formed. Today ethical
institutions can rarely remove ancient artifacts from the
countries of their origin, even when they fund the excavations,
and only purchase objects on the antiquities market when they are
absolutely sure they have not been illegally excavated. But back
in the Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, collecting
ancient art was very similar to collecting Chippendale furniture
or Old Master's paintings. In 1895, the University Museum made a
deal with Arthur L. Frothingham, Jr, Princeton professor and
associate director of the American School in Rome, to help them
find some first-rate archaeological material for the young
museum.
Frothingham's efforts were largely responsible for the strength
of the Etruscan collection and he also helped acquire a group of
45 marble sculptures from the sanctuary of Diana Nemorensis on
the shores of Lake Nemi, south of Rome. The lake was a favorite
resort of that era's rich and famous explains the curator, "I've
been back at the site excavating. There's a villa of Julius
Caesar along the shores of this same lake just around the corner
from the sanctuary." The museum also owns a monumental example of
ancient recycling, a block of marble from Puteoli in Southern
Italy that was once used for an inscription honoring the Emperor
Domitian around AD 95 and later "erased," so the reverse side
could be carved into a relief for an arch erected by the Emperor
Trajan in AD 102. Romano is currently working on a complete
catalog of the museum's Greek and Roman sculpture.
Among the transformations wrought by the recent renovation is the
addition of state-of-the-art lighting throughout the galleries
ranging from track bars overhead to tiny fiber optic glimmers
around the ancient coin display. Ahead lie efforts to fund a very
costly climate control installation for the entire museum.
Director Dr Jeremy Sabloff says, "These newly renovated galleries
are part of the ongoing 'modernization' of the museum. We are
delighted to invite visitors to explore and discover the
classical world in a way that shows its enduring legacy."
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and
Anthropology is at 3260 South Street, across from Franklin Field.
Adjacent parking is available for a fee and a commuter train
station is nearby. For more information, call 215-898-4000 or
visit www.museum.upenn.edu.
