The NYU Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) presents Devotion together with Decadence: The Berthouville Treasure together with Roman Luxury, bringing a spectacular cache of ancient silver, discovered inwards 1830 inwards northern France, together amongst a rich alternative of additional Roman luxury objects, all drawn from the unparalleled collections of the Cabinet des Médailles (now the Department of Coins, Medals, together with Antiques), of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
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Clare Fitzgerald, ISAW’s associate manager for exhibitions together with gallery curator, notes, “Ancient Rome is justly celebrated for major feats of engineering, such every bit aqueducts, monumental constructions similar the Colosseum, together with the network of roads that facilitated central throughout the Empire. Yet, every bit Devotion together with Decadence reveals, Romans were besides capable of genuinely virtuoso piece of employment on a far smaller scale. ISAW is delighted to convey these masterful plant of Roman artistry to New York. In keeping amongst our mission of studying the cultural connections betwixt various ancient civilizations, they are presented every bit eloquent exemplars of the rich interplay betwixt Gallic together with Roman cultures, every bit good every bit for their exquisite beauty together with the insight they render into the go of Roman luxury arts inwards devotional together with cultural settings."
Berthouville Treasure
Recognized today every bit i of the finest surviving hoards of ancient Roman silver, the Berthouville Treasure was discovered past times a French farmer piece plowing his plain close the hamlet of Berthouville, inwards Normandy. The cache—comprising roughly 90 silvery together with gilt-silver objects dating from the start to 3rd centuries CE—had been buried inwards a brick-lined pit inwards antiquity. The farmer had originally planned to sell the treasure for the value of its weight inwards silver, but earlier he did so, he showed it to a local goodness who identified its potential importance together with communicated tidings of the detect to Paris, where it was acquired past times the Bibliothèque national de French Republic inwards a bidding state of war amongst the Louvre Museum. Subsequent excavations at the site of its discovery, inwards 1861 together with 1896, revealed the foundations of a Gallo-Roman temple dedicated to Mercury Canetonensis.
Exhibition
Devotion together with Decadence: The Berthouville Treasure together with Roman Luxury is organized inwards 2 sections. The start gallery presents the opulent cache from Berthouville inwards its entirety, offering novel insights into Gallo-Roman cultural interaction, every bit good every bit art, technology, together with faith inwards the ancient world; the 2nd gallery contains precious gems, jewelry, together with other Roman luxury objects from the Cabinet’s collections, opening a window onto the go of such objects inwards both daily life together with religion.
In the start gallery, a Roman statuette of Mercury introduces the importance of the god inwards Gaul. Dating from 175–225 BCE, this is i of the largest statuettes inwards precious metallic to live on from antiquity. The creative individual has portrayed Mercury every bit a beardless immature human being whose pose together with muscular physique, derived from classical Greek statues of the 5th century BC, were pop throughout the Roman period.
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Statue of the god Mercury, 175–225 CE [Credit: Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Monnaies, médailles et antiques, Paris] |
The go of the temple of Mercury Canetonensis every bit a house where Roman together with Gallic cultures interacted is testified to past times the presence of objects such every bit a superb offering bowl that shows Mercury together amongst either his mother, Maia, or the Gallo-Roman fertility goddess Rosmerta, demonstrating the ways inwards which their depiction had come upward to fuse both Gallic together with Roman features. Donor inscriptions on silvery objects besides betoken that the temple was a house where both Roman citizens together with Gauls worshipped. For example, a ladle together with pitcher are each inscribed amongst the Gallic names of their donors—Combaromarus together with Camulognata respectively—while other artifacts are inscribed amongst Roman names. Inscriptions additionally divulge that artifacts were dedicated past times both men together with women, together with past times ex-slaves together with the freeborn.
Several of the most lavish votive objects constitute at the temple to Mercury were offered past times a Roman citizen named Quintus Domitius Tutus. These include cups, pitchers, a ladle, together with an offering bowl, all amongst elaborate ornamentation together with gilding that house them amidst the finest examples of ancient Roman silvery that has come upward downward to us through the ages. Most of these characteristic superbly depicted scenes together with iconography related to Bacchus, a god associated amongst vino together with revelry, every bit seen on a span of drinking cups known every bit skyphoi. Other examples of elite tableware include a large plate the centre of which is occupied past times an picture of the figure of Omphale, the mythological queen of the kingdom of Lydia, curled upward after overindulging.
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Beaker Commemorating the Isthmian Games, 1–100 CE [Credit: Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des Monnaies, médailles et antiques, Paris] |
Another grouping of plant inwards this gallery offers insights into the conservation piece of employment undertaken at the Getty Villa. Influenza A virus subtype H5N1 second, smaller Mercury statuette, for example, was originally constitute inwards fragments together with restored presently after the Treasure’s discovery. The conservator at that fourth dimension built a beeswax together with metallic armature to back upward the fragments, together with today the darkening wax enables us to clearly run across this early on approach to restoration. Employing newer technologies, Getty conservators were able to ameliorate sympathise the extent of older restorations together with to brand novel discoveries nigh the composition together with industry of such artifacts that guided them inwards their work.
The 2nd gallery of Devotion together with Decadence explores the significance of Roman luxury items inwards their broader setting. For the elite, hosting together with sharing meals was frequently a way to cultivate desirable social, political, or economical relationships. Tableware such every bit the large platters known every bit missoria, for example, may occasionally postulate hold been used to serve food, but were primarily a agency of displaying one’s wealth, status, together with fifty-fifty erudition. One instance on sentiment here, decorated amongst an picture of Hercules slaying the Nemean Lion, signals the owner’s cognition of Greek literature together with art, piece on another, an picture of a Panthera leo standing inwards a higher house the leg of his quarry alludes to the aristocratic pastime of hunting.
This gallery besides includes objects made of a multifariousness of materials, including carved rock vessels; jewelry; coins; ingots, together with smasher intaglios together with cameos. One highlight is the Treasure of Rennes, i of the few extant examples of Roman atomic position out 79 tableware. Dated to about 210 CE, this 18th-century detect includes jewelry, coins, together with an astonishing libation bowl featuring an elegant frieze surrounding a detailed medallion representing the triumph of Bacchus over Hercules.
Another masterpiece, the Cameo of Jupiter (The Cameo of Chartres), is notable for both the character of the sardonyx rock together with the stunning special of its carving. Originally carved about 50 CE, it depicts Jupiter amongst his scepter together with thunderbolt, symbols of his power. It is preserved inwards a fourteenth-century mount, illustrating how masterpieces of carving were valued together with preserved throughout antiquity together with the Byzantine catamenia earlier entering into the majestic treasury.
Devotion together with Decadence opened to the populace on Oct 17, 2018, together with remains on sentiment through Jan 6, 2019.
Source: New York University [October 10, 2018]
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