Societas Via Romana - Discussion Archives

Salvete omnes,

I'm off for a couple of weeks, so I'll see you all in mid-August!

Bene valete,
Marcus Scribonius Curio Britannicus.

Salvete omnes

I shall be away 13-20 March to Minneapolis, Minnesota. If anyone is in the area and might like to meet with me while I'm there, write to me at mhoratius@sbcglobal.net and we'll see if we can make arrangments.

Valete optime

I will be away until the 6th of July, as I will be visiting St.-Petersburg. Among many other - Russian - things, I expect to visit the Antiquities department of the famous Hermitage museum. Their Roman section is described as follows :

The unusually varied collection of Roman art spans the period from the late period of the Republic (1st century BC) to the late Empire (4th century AD), but most important is the collection of sculptural portraits. Including men, women and children, emperors, famous Roman statesmen, and private individuals, they enable us to trace the evolution of Roman portraiture from the creation of a faithful and accurate reproduction of the sitter's appearance to the depiction of the individual's inner world. The masterpieces of the collection are the bronze bust of a Roman man (1st century BC), a Syrian woman (2nd century AD), the Emperors Balbinus and Philip the Arab (both 3rd century AD). Roman official art, which affirmed the idea of the Eternal City by showing the Emperor as a god or triumphant commander - can be judged by the statue of the Emperor Augustus as Jupiter (1st century BC) and the portrait of Lucius Verus. Among the statues relating to different cults we should note the enormous statue of Jupiter (1st century BC) from Emperor Domitian's country villa. The exhibition includes a rich collection of Roman altars, reliefs, and marble sarcophagi.

The Hermitage collection of Roman antiquities is complemented by fine examples of bronzes, glassware, ceramics and mosaics.



Valete !

Ave Attice,

I never expected that there would be anything Roman on display at a museum in Russia. So I wish you a very nice trip and hope you tell us (under a seperate link) what you thing of the Roman exhibition at the Hermitage collection.

By the way, St. Petersburg is partner city of Hamburg but I've never been there although I heard it must be a nice place.

Enjoy your trip and come back home safely.

Salve Mari,

Ah, but a true Roman is a citizen of the world. As such, it's no surprise that art, architecture and other physical remnants of the civilisation are still doing it, nonne?

Draco

Salve mi Mari,

Marius Peregrine wrote:Ave, amica Aelia!

Heh heh...I never thought I'd see anything Roman displayed in the United States. And I haven't. But it happens; I remember coming upon an absolute coffee-table of a book which was the catalog for an exhibition of Roman sculpture.

>({|:-p

In a small book about Rome I have a list (though not complete) of museums all over the world where Roman things are on display and for the USA it states the following:

Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, fine Roman Art
Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, high ranking art museum in the replica of a Roman villa
New York City: Metropolitan Museum of Art; art museum with many Ancient Roman atracktions

Mari, do you know any of these museums.?I have been to NYC though never set a foot into the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was fancying more the dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum But I'll make sure I do it the next time I'm in NYC, since I do have friends living in NY State and PA who I visit from time to time, so next time I should go to NYC again.

But that above list is far from being complete since it lacks the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Maybe we should make a list here on the SVR homepage which could get more and more complete whenever someone of us has been to an interesting exhibition.