The exhibition “From Myth to Life: Images of Women from the Classical World” opens on February 12 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).

The exhibition focuses on varied depictions of women of antiquity with objects especially chosen from the Celia and Walter Gilbert Collection for their representation of women or for their use by women in the classical world. The vases, statuettes, jewelry and household objects, which range in style, origin and age, are on view until July 31 in the Alice Pratt Gallery and Garden of the Caroline Wiess Law Building,

Chronicling the development and transition of women in antiquity, the objects in the exhibition span 1,500 years, from Bronze Age Greece to Imperial Rome. They are the products of Etruscan and Phoenician, as well as Greek and Roman, manufacture. Of the various cultures represented, however, it is Greece that predominates, with vases, terra-cotta figurines and metalwork from Greek sites of South Italy and Sicily as well as from the powerful mainland cities of Corinth and Athens.

The representations of the female form range from romantic, to powerful, to iconic; from terra-cotta figurines of elegant simplicity to intricately carved gold ornaments, from the timeless silhouette of a woman’s head on an archaic perfume bottle to a complex narrative scene showing one woman’s place at the center of her family, as tragedy strikes. Idolized bronze statuettes depict the female form and numerous goddesses, including a winged Victory, a crowned Nemesis and Isis-Fortuna.

A terra-cotta statuette depicts a little girl dressed and dancing like a bear – presumably she is a follower of Artemis, goddess of wild beasts and the hunt. The collectors Celia and Walter Gilbert describe their experiences with art in this way: “Holding a paper-thin vase from antiquity gave us the intoxicating feeling of reaching backwards through time to encounter those complex and ambitious men and women of the ancient world.”

“From Myth to Life: Images of Women from the Classical World” is organized by Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Mass. Frances Marzio, curator of the Glassell Collections at the MFAH, is directing installation of the exhibition in Houston. A soft cover catalog written by Smith College students under the direction of Caroline Houser is available in the MFAH Shops for $8.

The Audrey Jones Beck Building of the MFAH is at 5601 Main Street and the Caroline Wiess Law Building is at 1001 Bissonnet Street. For information, 713-639-7300 or www.mfah.org.