Distance: 2.3 miles, take yoga class
Hercules of the Forum Boarium, Hellenistic sculpture of the 2nd century BCE, Gilded Bronze
While in L.A., Ciwt saw quite a few Hellenistic Era bronze statues, many in the Getty Center's current show: Power and Pathos. It's an extraordinary show which has gathered for the first time over 50 amazingly well-preserved and very moving bronzes from their individual venues throughout the the former Greek and Roman Empires. (Given the value of bronze and its usefulness for weapons when melted, it is a wonder any of these art works exist at all).
Other than a few pictures in her college History of Art textbooks, Ciwt was quite uninformed about ancient Greek art and culture before this trip. For instance, because there are numerous Hellenistic statues of Hercules, Ciwt thought he probably lived around that time (Ie, ca 300 BC). Well, no: Hercules - if he existed as a man at all - would have done so prior to 2500 BC. (That's a gap of 2,200+ years). And, because Ciwt had mostly seen pictures in her textbooks of individual statues, she was under the impression that each work was a one-of-a-kind. Well, no again; the early Greeks were already in the mass production business and many images were produced in the hundreds or thousands by multiple foundries.
So, Ciwt will continue to assimilate some of her LA art viewing thoughts and return...
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