Museums of Athens
Why museums??? I am always happier when I spend money on experiences rather than material purchases. Museums provide me a positive personal reinterpretations over time. Museums engage and educate at the same time. And the world's best museums engage you instantaneously. For me the American Natural History Museum was the turning point and that dragged me into the world of museums.This place turned the non believer into a believer me. Museums like Musée d'Orsay, Paris inspired me and made me fall in love with impressionist master pieces. The kid in me came alive at Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington DC. A step back in time was literally possible at a Museum like Museum of Cycladic art, Athens. I love to slow down, decomplicate and enrich myself and for this museums matter. I am so glad history is alive!!!
Sharing 3 things that I loved at each of the 3 Museums I visited in Athens. And i am sure you can guess my favorite one by the end of the blog.
Acropolis Museum
A) More than 100 concrete pillars support the building over the remains of an ancient Athenian city, discovered during pre-construction. The archaeological excavation on the site: ruins from the 4th through 7th centuries A.D are left intact and protected beneath the building and made visible through the first floor. Respect to Bernard Tschumi Architects!
B) Erechtheion is one of the Greek temples that was etched in my memory forever as an Architecture student. I was overly disappointed at its site when i learnt the iconic caryatids were replicas. This museum houses the 5 original caryatids and made up for my disappointment. These draped, sculpted female figures carved from Pentelic marble, mined from the slopes of Mount Pentelicus and standing two and a half meters tall are a thing of beauty.
C) I have always enjoyed the cafes at the museums. A place to rest your tired feet and refresh before the exploration starts all over again. The cafe at the New Acropolis museum is my favorite as it provided a view of Parthenon majestically sitting over the hill.
The Glass walkway at the entrance of New Acropolis Museum
The new museum of Acropolis. 
Reconstructed west pediment of Parthenon - Battle between Athena and Poseidon
The west pediment faced the Propylaia and depicted the contest between Athena and Poseidon during their competition for the honor of becoming the city’s patron. Athena and Poseidon appear at the center of the composition, diverging from one another in strong diagonal forms with the goddess holding the olive tree and the god of the sea raising his trident to strike the earth. At their flanks they are framed by two active groups of horses pulling chariots, while a crowd of legendary personalities from Athenian mythology fills the space out to the acute corners of the pediment.
The sculptures of the Parthenon pediments are some of the finest examples of classical Greek art. The figures are sculpted in natural movement with bodies full of vital energy that bursts through their flesh, as the flesh in turn bursts through their thin clothing. The thin chitons allow the body underneath to be revealed as the focus of the composition. The distinction between gods and humans is blurred in the conceptual interplay between the idealism and naturalism bestowed on the stone by the sculptors.
The Caryatids- vertical Flute like drapery conceal the stiff weight bearing legs
The caryatids have the features that would become the core of the classical greek sculpture.The features include the intricate folds of the cloth, the art of making the clothing cling to the body,their realism and the contrapposto pose.
Museum of Ancient Agora
A) A delight in symmetry and perspective is the reconstructed covered portico of Stoa of Attalo. The picture below will tell you a thousand secrets
B) Ingenious Greeks displaying innovation in slot machine and a water clock.
C) Drapery in stone- The deep understanding of anatomy and in turn the deep fold of fabric that follow the line of body is a delight to eye. There are 5 techniques- Modeling line, transparency, catenary line, motion line and ribbon drapery. Wish I could study each of them in more detail.
The colonnade of iconic columns
Klepsydra ( 5th -4th c. BC) was a type of simple hydraulic clock used for timing the speeches given in the law courts of ancient athens. It consisted of two perforated vessels, one of which was placed at a highrr level than the other and was filled with water. The upper vessel had a small bronze lined outlet at the bottom, which was blocked by a plug. There was a hole on the upper part near rim to allow vessel to be filled with same amount of water each time. When the speech began, the plug was removed and water began to flow to the lower vessel. An experienced speaker adjusted his speech to coincide with the last drop. The below example took 6 minutes to empty
Kleroteria were allotment machines made from slab of wood or stone. in face of each slab were columns of narrow slots aligned in horizontal rows. Into the slots were inserted bronze identification tickts ( pinakia) carried by the citizen who were eligible for jury service. On left side of the face there was a metal tube, top of which terminated in a funnel shaped mouth. Into the tube were poured a number of black or white bronze balls in random order, By means of a crank the balls could be released one by pne. Depending on whether a white or black ball emerged all the citizens represented by one horizontal row of pinakia were accepted or rejected for jury service that day. This was placed at entrance of all courts
Statue of Goddess Probably Aphrodite- Early 4th century BC
Winged Victory 400 BC Akroterion ( Statue on roof) from Stoa of Zeus Eleutherios
Portrait Bust of the emperor Antoninus Pius 138-161 AD
Museum of Cycladic Art
A) Time travel through Cycladic art ( 3200 -2000 BC), Ancient Greek art ( 2000 BC - AD 395), Ancient Cypriot art ( 3900 BC to 6th c. AD) and understand the evolution of history and art. Yes , Loved the entire exhibition!
B) Cycladic figurines- the most recognized ambassador due to its modern interpretation. What were they used for? what did they represent? How did they make the figurines?
C) The emblematic black and red figure style vases . To understand how the potter evolved his vessels and made it an art form was a delight
C) The emblematic black and red figure style vases . To understand how the potter evolved his vessels and made it an art form was a delight
Female figurine Canonical type- Early work of spedos variety
Male figurine Warrior or hunter of spedos variety marble - early cycladic II Syros Phase
Female figurine of spedos variety marble - early cycladic II Syros Phase
Geometric Art- LG pyxis ( a small box) with horses on lid
Boeotian plank figurines of female with elaborated head dresses and colored decoration. They are handmade apart from the heads which are moulded. Such figurines are commonly found in sanctuaries and graves. They are thought to represent deities. ( Late 6th - early 5th c, BC)
Image source: Museum of cycladic art website
The orientalization period: Corinthian vases with orientalizing influence
The red-figure technique was the main decorative style for vases in the Classical period
Twin Necked Jugs from Early Cypriot 1. red polished ware with plastic animals on bars
The orientalization period: Corinthian vases with orientalizing influence
The ‘Orientalizing movement’ took on a more systematic form from the end of the 8th c. BC onward. In Corinth, Athens, Crete and East Greece, potters abandoned the Geometric style and started decorating vases with schematic floral motifs (rosettes, palm fronds) and mythological creatures (sphinx, griffin) of Assyrian or Egyptian origin, as well as with exotic animals unfamiliar in the Greek landscape (e.g. lions)
The Archaic period represents a formative stage of Greek art- Black figure hydria( vessel for water) depecting a quadriga ( four horse chariot). The inscritions are meaningless. Such "nonsense inscriptions" are commonin attic vases. Attributted to the Guglielmi painter ca 550BC
The black-figure technique was a common style of decoration in ancient Greek vases, which depended on figures in black silhouette set against a bright orange background; the figures’ outline and details (facial and anatomical features, garments, etc.) were rendered by incision.
Attic red figure column krater ( vessel to dilute wine with water and with columnar handles rising from the shoulder to a flat, projecting lip rim)
After having intoxicating him with wine, Dionysus God of wine( with a kantharos (a cup used to hold wine) on the right hand) brings Hephaestus (he Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes) back to Mt Olympus . On other side, three young men are walking and discussing. Attributed to Leningrad Painter 470-460 BC
May 2017
Athens, Greece
The Travel Connection: It's not always the popular museums that have the best exhibits. So explore beyond popular
Tip: If running out of time, take photos of description of the exhibits. You can browse through it in leisure
Tip: If running out of time, take photos of description of the exhibits. You can browse through it in leisure
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