G. Brands - H. R. Goette (eds), Spätantike Ideal- und Portraitplastik: Stilkritik, Kontexte, Naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen, Wiesbaden 2023, 123-134., 2023
The subject of this article is the large bust of a ›philosopher‹ in Budapest which is said ... more The subject of this article is the large bust of a ›philosopher‹ in Budapest which is said to come from Asia Minor. It can be shown by detailed observation that the sculpture of the mid-2nd century A.D. was transformed and reworked in late antiquity. The same is true for a second bust, today in Thessaloniki, which probably is from Asia Minor, too, and depicts the same person; but it must be recognized that some of its details differ from those of the Budapest portrait. Both busts once belonged to clipei. On the basis of analyses of the material ‒ both sculptures were made of marble from Göktepe near Aphrodisias ‒ and because of their contemporaneous reworking, it can be hypothesized that they come from the same place and were used on the same architecture.
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Papers by Árpád M Nagy
The manuscript is printed in essentially unchanged form. The editors made only minimal additions of works since published in the bibliography. Any interventions larger than minor copyediting are marked with asterisks [*] and explained.
The image, which shows the winged Eros alighting from flight onto a rolling wheel, is unique: it lacks any close iconographic parallels. The scene is not a snapshot of a moment, nor does it represent any known mythical story: its meaning can only be reached by structural analysis of the pictorial elements of which it is composed. This piece opens a window on several different semantic fields that seem to lack any clear organic connection, and even at times to contradict each other.
If we examine the archaeological, iconographic and literary sources of the scene’s constituent elements, we can attach five different semantic fields to the relief. In the end, a tight connection can be established between the god of love and Kairos (the “Opportune Moment”). This relief, the work of an unknown sculptor doctus, thus represents a kind of summation of the essential features of Eros in sculptural form.
This article written by H. R. Goette, Á. M. Nagy, N. Tóth, D. Decrouez, K. Ramseyer, Z. May and D. Attanasio announces the long-term archaeometric research on the ancient marble sculptures in the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, conducted in relation to new archaeological research on those Greek and Roman works of art. The cooperation of these two disciplines applied to ancient sculptures by discussing and re-examining the methods and arguments resulted in new findings.
(Review of the exhibition "Think Big! Gail Rothschild porträtiert spätantike Textilfunde aus Aegypten"
Berlin, Bode-Museum, 1 July - 31 October 2022
Concept: Cäcilia Fluck and Kathrin Mälck, in collaboration with Gail Rothschild)
This chapter surveys ‘magical gems’: semi-precious stones inscribed during the Roman period that concentrate the power of stone, color, jewelry, and performative words, images, and signs. These materials are discusses in three contexts: formal characteristics (text, images, and signs), structural characteristics (material, engraving, and shape), and function (amulets, gems, jewels, and seals). The chapter also analyses these gems as manifestations of both ancient tradition and a new technology. Finally, the re-use of ancient gems after Antiquity and the history of publication of major corpora of gems are addressed.
See the CBd: over 2700 objects are now catalogued, with growing detailed commentaries that serve as reference to scholars.http://classics.mfab.hu/talismans/
The manuscript is printed in essentially unchanged form. The editors made only minimal additions of works since published in the bibliography. Any interventions larger than minor copyediting are marked with asterisks [*] and explained.
The image, which shows the winged Eros alighting from flight onto a rolling wheel, is unique: it lacks any close iconographic parallels. The scene is not a snapshot of a moment, nor does it represent any known mythical story: its meaning can only be reached by structural analysis of the pictorial elements of which it is composed. This piece opens a window on several different semantic fields that seem to lack any clear organic connection, and even at times to contradict each other.
If we examine the archaeological, iconographic and literary sources of the scene’s constituent elements, we can attach five different semantic fields to the relief. In the end, a tight connection can be established between the god of love and Kairos (the “Opportune Moment”). This relief, the work of an unknown sculptor doctus, thus represents a kind of summation of the essential features of Eros in sculptural form.
This article written by H. R. Goette, Á. M. Nagy, N. Tóth, D. Decrouez, K. Ramseyer, Z. May and D. Attanasio announces the long-term archaeometric research on the ancient marble sculptures in the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest, conducted in relation to new archaeological research on those Greek and Roman works of art. The cooperation of these two disciplines applied to ancient sculptures by discussing and re-examining the methods and arguments resulted in new findings.
(Review of the exhibition "Think Big! Gail Rothschild porträtiert spätantike Textilfunde aus Aegypten"
Berlin, Bode-Museum, 1 July - 31 October 2022
Concept: Cäcilia Fluck and Kathrin Mälck, in collaboration with Gail Rothschild)
This chapter surveys ‘magical gems’: semi-precious stones inscribed during the Roman period that concentrate the power of stone, color, jewelry, and performative words, images, and signs. These materials are discusses in three contexts: formal characteristics (text, images, and signs), structural characteristics (material, engraving, and shape), and function (amulets, gems, jewels, and seals). The chapter also analyses these gems as manifestations of both ancient tradition and a new technology. Finally, the re-use of ancient gems after Antiquity and the history of publication of major corpora of gems are addressed.
See the CBd: over 2700 objects are now catalogued, with growing detailed commentaries that serve as reference to scholars.http://classics.mfab.hu/talismans/
Kata Endreffy is curator at the Collection of Classical Antiquities of the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest. She is an Egyptologist and editor of the Campbell Bonner Magical Gems Database.
Árpád M. Nagy is Keeper of the Collection of Classical Antiquities at the Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, with research focused on ancient iconography and sculpture. He is the editor-in-chief of the Campbell Bonner Magical Gems Database.
Jeffrey Spier is Senior Curator of Antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. His interests include Greek art, early Christian iconography, gems and jewelry from Greek to Byzantine times, and magical amulets.
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Series: Studia Archaeologica, 229
Pages and Illustrations: 400
Publisher: L'ERMA di Bretschneider
Publication Year: 2019
ISBN: 978-88-913-1297-6 (Paperback)
ISBN: 978-88-913-1300-3 (PDF)