The
interior in 1938 watercolours by Wilhelm August Hahn and today,
including the Egyptian Room and after the war, necessitating the
relocation of the Obelisk of Titus Sextius Africanus to the new
Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst with Drake Winston standing in front.
Drake at the recently opened Aegyptisches Museum, showing the Horus, Thebes Tomb of Amenopys III, New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty, circa 1360 BCE.
The Barberini Faun in more extravagant surroundings in its pre-war restoration and today
Drake beside a copy in the Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke showing how it originally appeared before being provided with a reconstructed leg. When discovered in the 1620s in the moat below the Castel Sant'Angelo, Rome (which in Antiquity had been Hadrian’s Mausoleum), the statue was heavily damaged; the right leg, parts of both hands, and parts of the head were missing. The historian Procopius recorded that during the siege of Rome in 537 the defenders had hurled down upon the Goths the statues adorning Hadrian's Mausoleum, and Johann Winckelmann speculated that the place of discovery and the statue's condition suggested that it had been such a projectile. It was traditionally asserted that Cardinal Maffeo Barberini commissioned Gianlorenzo Bernini to restore the statue, "but there is no evidence for the tradition that Bernini was in any way involved with the statue," Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny observed in 1981, after reviewing the documentation and literature. Restorations, at first in stucco, were remade in 1679 by Giuseppe Giorgetti and Lorenzo Ottoni, who enabled the antique left leg to be reaffixed and provided the elaborate supporting structure that is illustrated in Paolo Alessandro Maffei's Raccolta di statue (1704); in the eighteenth century the right leg was again restored in marble, and once more by Pacetti in 1799. (The sculpture is shown today without the restored hanging left arm.)
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| As it appeared after being transferred to the Zentralministerium's Luftschutzkeller on Ludwigstrasse |
The over-lifesize Medusa Rondanini, the best late Hellenistic or Augustan
Roman marble copy of the head of Medusa, is rendered more humanized and
beautiful than the always grotesque apotropaic head of Medusa that
appeared as the Gorgoneion on the aegis of Athena. It was purchased by
the art-loving king Ludwig of Bavaria from the heirs of the marchese
Rondanini, during his Grand Tour of Italy as a prince. The Medusa
Rondanini may be a Roman copy of a classical work of the fifth century
BCE, a model attributed to one or another Athenian sculptor of the age
of Phidias. Alternatively, it may have been modeled after a classicising
Hellenistic work of the late fourth century BCE. If it is of the fifth
century, Janer Danforth Belson has pointed out, it is the first of the
"beautiful gorgoneion" type to appear in Greek art by more than a
century, and unparalleled in any contemporaneous representation of the
Medusa head. Martin Robertson, following Furtwängler's attribution to
Phidias, remarked that it would be unlikely for the beautiful face of
the Medusa to be juxtaposed with the beautiful face of the goddess,
whose gorgoneion retained its fearful archaic appearance. Janer
Danforth Belson has made a case for its model to have been the
gorgoneion on a gilt-bronze aegis that was an ex-voto of Antiochus IV
and was hung on the south retaining wall of the Acropolis of Athens
about 170 BC, where it was noted by Pausanias in the late second century
CE. Six other ancient replicas of the same prototype, apparently a
bronze, have been recorded, none of them of this quality.
"[T]he mere knowledge that such a work could be created and still exists in the world makes me feel twice the person I was ... If I can get hold of a good cast of this Medusa, I shall bring it back with me..."Goethe, Italian Journey
The Äginetensaal then and now, housing the marbles from the Late Archaic temple of Aphaia, comprising the sculptural groups of the east and west pediments. Restored by the Danish neoclassic sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen, they exerted a formative influence on the local character of Neoclassicism in Munich, as exhibited in the architecture of Leo von Klenze. Each pediment centred on the figure of Athena, with groups of combatants, fallen warriors, and arms filling the decreasing angles of the pediments. The theme shared by the pediments was the greatness of Aigina as shown by the exploits of its local heroes in the two Trojan wars, one lead by Heracles against Laomedon and a second lead by Agamemnon against Priam. According to the standard myths, Zeus raped the nymph Aigina, who bore the first king of the island, Aiakos. This king had the sons Telamon (father of the Homeric hero Ajax) and Peleus (father of the Homeric hero Achilles). The sculptures preserve extensive traces of a complex paint scheme, and are crucial for the study of painting on ancient sculpture. The marbles are finished even on the back surfaces of the figures, despite the fact that these faced the pediment and were thus not visible.
Reconstruction of the archaic Western pediment of the Temple of Aphaia at Aegina from
Adolf Furtwängler: Aegina. Das Heiligtum der Aphaia, Munich 1906
King Laomedon, also known as the "Dying Hoplite", in a restored version and the original.
Showing pieces then and today, clearly showing their radical restoration. When the sculptures eventually made their way to the Glyptothek, which at that time was the first public classic archaeology museum, they did so after first being extensively and controversially restored in 1815 by the great Danish sculptor, Bertel Thorvaldsen, who began work on completing the missing sections of the sculptures in the classical style in a misguided attempt to present them as wholly intact and complete statues. As early as the late 19th century, however, these restorations were the subject of controversial debate and they were finally completely removed in 1963–1965 through a process of de-restoring the sculptures to their original fragmentary state. Other fragments from the temple were subsequently recovered and are now in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens. Furtwangler and Urlichs have this to say about the restoration: "Beside the harmonious completeness and rhythmic variety of the two pediments the scattered and defective parts of the original appear dull and tedious,” going on to write how their "restoration was carried out in Rome under Thorvaldsen’s guidance in marble -von Wagner restored only the torsos-, in the manner of the time without much reverence for the pieces preserved.” In fact, Furtwangler is reported as having described the restoration “the darkest hour in the Aegina figures’ history.”
Eastern pediment
The
second Trojan war – the one described by Homer – is the theme, with
Ajax (son of Telamon) figuring prominently. The style of these
sculptures is that of the Archaic period. The composition deals with the
decreasing angles of the pediment by filling the space using a shield
and a helmet.
In front of the wooden model of the Roman forum for the special exhibition Im Zentrum der Macht in the room of Roman busts.
1945 and today
Showing the supposed busts of Marius and Sulla with that of Augustus in the foreground. In the background is the so-called “Altar of
Domitius Ahenobarbus” or “Statue Base of Marcus Antonius”, a relief frieze
of a monumental statue group base depicting a sea thiasos (the ecstatic retinue of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revellers) for the wedding of
Poseidon and Amphitrite, 2nd half of the 2nd century BCE. It was probably from the temple to Neptune commisioned by Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus after a naval victory, perhaps the one won off Samos in 129 or 128 against Aristonicus who had attempted to oppose the donation of Pergamon to Rome by the will of King Attalos III. The construction of the temple (or restoration of a pre-existing temple) only dates to 122 BCE, the year in which Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus attained the consulship. In 41 BCE Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus (descendant of the aforementioned), a supporter of the Republican party and of the assassins of Caesar had an aureus minted on the occasion of a victory over a supporter of Octavian, which featured the image of his ancestor on the obverse and a tetrastyle temple on the reverse, with the inscription NEPT CN DOMITIUS L F IMP (Cn. Domitius, son of Lucius, Imperator, to Neptune.
At the centre of the scene, Neptune and Amphitrite are seated in a chariot drawn by two Tritons who dance to music. They are accompanied by a multitude of fantastic creatures, Tritons and Nereides who form a retinue for the wedding couple. At the left, a Nereid riding on a sea-bull carries a present. To her right, the mother of Amphitrite, Doris, advances towards the couple, mounted on a sea-horse and holding wedding torches in each hand to light the procession's way. To her right is an Eros, a creature associated with Venus. Behind the wedding couple, a Nereid, accompanied by two more Erotes and riding a hippocamp, carries another present. The
reliefs are mentioned in 1629 and 1631 after having been uncovered
during the works undertaken by the Roman Santacroce family between 1598
and 1641.
Bust of Trajan with the Civic Crown, a sword belt
and the aegis (attribute of Jupiter and symbol of divine power).
Drake beneath the busts of Hadrian (with that of his beloved Antinous behind) and Marcus Aurelius.
In
Book XXXIV of his Natural History, Pliny writes about this statue-
"Boethus although more celebrated for his works in silver, has executed a
beautiful figure of a child strangling [embracing?] a goose." Here Drake is beside the copies in Munich and Rome.
Beside copies of the Drunken Old Woman in Munich (above) and in Rome (below). Created in the Hellenistic period, the exact time of its creation cannot be determined but is generally dated to the late third century BCE. The bulky, blocky composition and the pyramidal structure is comparable to the Scythians of the Marsyas Flayer Group, which is dated to the first half of the second century BCE and to the figure of the Goose strangler, which is dated to the middle or later third century BCE, both of which share the same space. The copy in Munich is dated to the first century CE and is considered the better copy whilst that in the Capitoline is dated to the second century CE. According to Pliny the original version of the statue was displayed at Smyrna in Asia Minor. In book 36 of his Natural History, he lists 32 significant marble artworks which were not located in Rome, including an anus ebria (Drunken crone") said to have been made by Myron of Thebes which he incorrectly equates with the homonymous sculptor Myron who lived in the fifth century BCE. Alexandria has been suggested as a second possible location of the original on account of the lagynos which the old woman holds in front of herself. The lagynos was the source of the name of the lagynophoria, the flask-festival, which was founded by Ptolemy IV. The statue of the Old Drunkard in the Munich Glyptothek was in the possession of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome from 1700 and at the time was among the best known antiquities in the city. Leo von Klenze refused to admit the Old Drunkard into the Glyptothek when it was established by King Ludwig I. In 1895 the statue was finally put on display in the Munich Glyptothek by Adolf Furtwängler, in the "Roman gallery" rather than with the Greek sculpture. Today the sculpture is counted among the show-pieces of the collection, along with the Barberini Faun and the Boy with the Goose.
The sculpture depicts an aged woman, who squats on the ground and holds an open flask in her lap. At a height of around 92 centimetres, the statue is about life size. The woman sits on the ground and extends her legs in front of herself and crosses her ankles such that the left leg sits in front of the right one. She holds the lagynos flask in her lap, grasping it tightly around the neck and belly. The flask which presumably holds unmixed win, is decorated with an ivy vine pattern. The woman is dressed in a chiton which would be secured with metal pins and which is girded round the middle of the body with a belt. The right pin has slipped off her shoulder, leaving her upper body uncovered, without exposing her breast. The motif of the pin which has slipped off the shoulder traditionally had erotic connotations and appears especially in depictions of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. Over the chiton, the woman wore a heavy cloak, which has fallen to the ground and piles up around her. The woman's clothing recalls contemporary fashion. The same clothing is also found in depictions of Aphrodite and Nymphs, and also of distinguished women of the time. On the exposed upper body, the collar bone and ribs emerge from the Décolletage, as do the shoulder blades and the spinal column at the back. The skin is stretched in a thin sheet over the skeleton and the underlying muscles, veins and tendons are depicted in an anatomically correct way. A thick vein runs up her neck directly under the skin and disappears into a jowl under her chin. Pierced ears indicate golden earrings, which would have been inserted. A headscarf holds her hair out of her face. The head is raised, mouth is slightly open and her eyes stare off into space. Her skin is loose and hangs in folds over her cheeks and jaw. The Nasolabial fold is pronounced and crow's feet surround the eyes. The open mouth exposes two remaining teeth. The woman's hair is carefully styled, wrapped at the sides and gathered up with a band above the neck. Her headscarf is carefully wrapped around her head; a few locks peep out under it, as if by accident. She wears two rings on her left hand, one on her pointing finger and one on her ringfinger, which implies that she was wealthy and had some social status.
Beside copies of the Drunken Old Woman in Munich (above) and in Rome (below). Created in the Hellenistic period, the exact time of its creation cannot be determined but is generally dated to the late third century BCE. The bulky, blocky composition and the pyramidal structure is comparable to the Scythians of the Marsyas Flayer Group, which is dated to the first half of the second century BCE and to the figure of the Goose strangler, which is dated to the middle or later third century BCE, both of which share the same space. The copy in Munich is dated to the first century CE and is considered the better copy whilst that in the Capitoline is dated to the second century CE. According to Pliny the original version of the statue was displayed at Smyrna in Asia Minor. In book 36 of his Natural History, he lists 32 significant marble artworks which were not located in Rome, including an anus ebria (Drunken crone") said to have been made by Myron of Thebes which he incorrectly equates with the homonymous sculptor Myron who lived in the fifth century BCE. Alexandria has been suggested as a second possible location of the original on account of the lagynos which the old woman holds in front of herself. The lagynos was the source of the name of the lagynophoria, the flask-festival, which was founded by Ptolemy IV. The statue of the Old Drunkard in the Munich Glyptothek was in the possession of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome from 1700 and at the time was among the best known antiquities in the city. Leo von Klenze refused to admit the Old Drunkard into the Glyptothek when it was established by King Ludwig I. In 1895 the statue was finally put on display in the Munich Glyptothek by Adolf Furtwängler, in the "Roman gallery" rather than with the Greek sculpture. Today the sculpture is counted among the show-pieces of the collection, along with the Barberini Faun and the Boy with the Goose.
The sculpture depicts an aged woman, who squats on the ground and holds an open flask in her lap. At a height of around 92 centimetres, the statue is about life size. The woman sits on the ground and extends her legs in front of herself and crosses her ankles such that the left leg sits in front of the right one. She holds the lagynos flask in her lap, grasping it tightly around the neck and belly. The flask which presumably holds unmixed win, is decorated with an ivy vine pattern. The woman is dressed in a chiton which would be secured with metal pins and which is girded round the middle of the body with a belt. The right pin has slipped off her shoulder, leaving her upper body uncovered, without exposing her breast. The motif of the pin which has slipped off the shoulder traditionally had erotic connotations and appears especially in depictions of the goddess of love, Aphrodite. Over the chiton, the woman wore a heavy cloak, which has fallen to the ground and piles up around her. The woman's clothing recalls contemporary fashion. The same clothing is also found in depictions of Aphrodite and Nymphs, and also of distinguished women of the time. On the exposed upper body, the collar bone and ribs emerge from the Décolletage, as do the shoulder blades and the spinal column at the back. The skin is stretched in a thin sheet over the skeleton and the underlying muscles, veins and tendons are depicted in an anatomically correct way. A thick vein runs up her neck directly under the skin and disappears into a jowl under her chin. Pierced ears indicate golden earrings, which would have been inserted. A headscarf holds her hair out of her face. The head is raised, mouth is slightly open and her eyes stare off into space. Her skin is loose and hangs in folds over her cheeks and jaw. The Nasolabial fold is pronounced and crow's feet surround the eyes. The open mouth exposes two remaining teeth. The woman's hair is carefully styled, wrapped at the sides and gathered up with a band above the neck. Her headscarf is carefully wrapped around her head; a few locks peep out under it, as if by accident. She wears two rings on her left hand, one on her pointing finger and one on her ringfinger, which implies that she was wealthy and had some social status.
| During the annual commemorative marches past the Glyptothek and Antikensammlungen |
The State Collections of Antiques in the Kunstareal of Munich is a museum for the Bavarian state's antique collections for Greek, Etruscan and Roman art. The Bavarian state collection of Ancient Egyptian art is traditionally placed in its own museum. The neo-classical building at Königsplatz with Corinthian columns was established in 1848 as counterpart to the opposite Glyptothek and commissioned by the Bavarian King Ludwig I; the swastikas around its entrance date from this time. The architect was Georg Friedrich Ziebland. Already from 1869 to 1872 the building housed the royal antiquarium before the Munich Secession resided here from 1898 to 1912. From 1919 the building contained the New State Gallery. The museum building was severely damaged by bombing in World War II when it especially lost its Etruscan pottery, which was stored in the bombed Neue Pinakothek. It was eventually reconstructed and reopened to the public in the late 1960s to display the State Collection of Antiques. 
Dionysiac thiasos. Attic red-figure pointed amphora by the Kleophrades Painter, the name given to the anonymous red-figure Athenian vase painter who was active from approximately 510 – 470 BCE and whose work, considered amongst the finest of the red figure style, is identified by its stylistic traits such as the expressive emotions of his characters, and through study of his painted faces. The eyes of his figures are often drawn rather long and slender, accompanied by strong chins, and a unique way of showing the inner detail of the ear.
He is the great master of the white lekythos. His red-figure vases nearly always have a sober beauty, but few of them–like the pointed amphora in the Cabinet des Médailles–reach the height of his best white lekythoi, which are among the masterpieces of ancient drawing.
Linos was killed by Heracles during a musical lesson because he reprimanded his pupil for making mistakes. This painture shows the lesson room, four pupils and the young Heracles seized by anger against his teacher. The hero overwhelms his master and bits him with a leg of a destroyed chair. Linos tries to hold out the aggressor with his hand and his lyre provides just a weak and disparate resistance to Herakles’s impetuosity.Lehrer Tot- Schule Aus (Teacher Dead, School Out)
The grave stele of Aristion. Drake in front of the funerary stele of an Athenian warrior (Aristion) wearing the kynê (a type of cap made of leather) from around 520 BCE.Beside it is a reconstruction of the original polychromy. Dad is next to the copy of the stele of fallen Athenian hoplite warriors at Marathon.
The
Central Collecting Point in Munich was designated to primarily hold
ERR loot, Hitler and Goering’s collections, and other works found in
the Altaussee salt mine. The photos above from Robert Edsel's blog show the Munich Collecting Point before repairs were made in June 1945 and how it appeared during this period.
Rodin's Burghers of Calais at the site after the war. Fittingly the building today serves as a museum for classical replicas:
Model of Delphi and Dad at the actual site
Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke München (Haus der Kulturinstitute)
On Meiserstrasse 10 (across from the offices of the Fuehrer's deputy) is the NSDAP Central Office, now the Museum für Abgüsse Klassischer Bildwerke München
(Haus der Kulturinstitute); the photo on the right shows the remains of
a 'temple of honour' overgrown with vegetation. Identical to the Fuehrerbau to
which it is linked by a 105 metre tunnel, this was the office of the
Reich treasurer and where filing cabinets held the information for 8.5
million party members which would later prove crucial for the Americans'
denazification process. It later held much of the stolen art eventually
recovered.
Christmas 1937 and today- the building remains completely unchanged.
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| Even the lights and hand rails are unchanged |
Laocoön
and His Sons as it appeared between c. 1540 and 1957, with Laocoön's
extended arm; the sons' restored arms were removed in the 1980s and the
original in the Vatican Museum. Drake beside the copy, clearly influenced by the 19th century reconstruction with his mother beside the actual piece at the Vatican.
Sixteenth-century drawing showing the group of Laocöon as it was found missing arms after it had been discovered on January 14, 1506. Giuliano da Sangallo and Michelangelo Buonarroti were amongst the first to see the statue and propose a hypothesis for the original form of the missing arms, noting from the remaining traces that the missing right arms of the father and of his son were raised and that the snake seemed to have been around the father’s right arm and its tail around the son’s arm. They also thought that the father might have had some weapon in his hand. The statue was soon brought to the collection of the Vatican Belvedere, and Bramante organized a competition inviting four artists to model it in wax. Raphael was amongst the judges and he considered that the young Sansovino had far surpassed the others. So, by the advice of Cardinal Domenico Grimani, Bramante dicided that Jacopo’s model should be cast in bronze. Sansovino was the first restorer of the statue integrating the missing parts - probably in gypsum. It seems that the arm of Laocoon was bent towards the head in this restoration. A few years later, Baccio Bandinelli, who had been commissioned to make a replica in marble, made a new repair for the arm of Laocoon, which had broken off in the meantime. He made the arm stretch upwards much more than had Sansovino. Bandinelli proudly claimed he had surpassed the antiques with his replica, but Michelangelo commented: “Who follows others, will never pass in front of them, and who is not able to do well himself, cannot make good use of the works of others.” In 1532, Michelangelo recommended one of his collaborators, Fra Giovanni Angiolo Montorsoli, to restore some broken statues in the Belvedre including the left arm of Apollo and the right arm of Laocoon. The work was accorded “the greatest affection” by the pope. Laocoon’s arm was made in terracotta and pointed straight; this gave strong diagonal movement to the statue, differing greatly from the original closed expression with a bent arm (as was later discovered).
Drake by The Tyrannicides, and his father between the marble copy dating 477-476 BCE in the Museo Nazionale Archeologico in Naples, based on the bronze original erected in the Agora, Athens.
The Dying Gaul and beside the real copy on the Capitoline in Rome
The Barberini Faun and the original nearby in the Glyptothek with reconstructed leg
Copies of the Farnese Hercules from an original by Lysippos (or one of his circle) that would have been made in the fourth century BCE. The enlarged copy was made for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome (dedicated in 216 AD), where the statue was recovered in 1546, and is now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples. It depicts a muscular, yet weary, Hercules leaning on his club, which has the skin of the Nemean lion draped over it. In myths about Heracles, killing the lion was his first task. He has just performed one of the last of The Twelve Labours, which is suggested by the apples of the Hesperides he holds behind his back. The sculpture has been reassembled and restored by degrees. According to a letter of Guglielmo della Porta, the head had been recovered separately, from a well in Trastevere, and was bought for Farnese through the agency of della Porta, whose legs made to complete the figure were so well-regarded that when the original legs were recovered from ongoing excavations in the Baths of Caracalla, della Porta's were retained, on Michelangelo's advice, in part to demonstrate that modern sculptors could bear direct comparison with the ancients. The original legs, from the Borghese collection, were not reunited with the sculpture until 1787. Goethe, in his Italian Journey, recounts his differing impressions upon seeing the Hercules with each set of legs, however, marvelling at the clear superiority of the original ones. In 1590–91, during his trip to Rome, Hendrik Goltzius sketched the statue in the palazzo courtyard. Later (in 1591) Goltzius recorded the less-common rear view, in a bravura engraving (illustration, right), which emphasises the already exaggerated muscular form with swelling and tapering lines that flow over the contours. The young Rubens made quick sketches of the planes and massing of the statue of Hercules. The sculpture was admired from the start, reservations about its exaggerated musculature only surfacing in the later eighteenth century.
Myron's Discobolus and the version in the National Roman Museum at the Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
The Arch of Titus
Visiting again with my parents and little Drake Winston in front of a copy in Munich
Herakles and the Cretan Bull and aided by Athena holding up the heavens whilst Atlas fetches the golden apples.
Herakles, in the course of his labours, is shown reacting to a variety of experiences and, as he does so, growing old. In the first of the labours depicted in the cycle, his battle with the Nemean lion, he had been shown as a beardless youth with a creased brow and downcast look designed to express the worry and exhaustion that followed his initial struggle. (The head can be seen in the archaeological museum in Olympia.) In the last metope of the cycle, exhibited here, by contrast, we see him at the end of his labours as a mature, calm, full-bearded figure who temporarily takes the world on his shoulders while the giant Atlas brings forward the apples of the Hesperides. The metope beautifully captures what the Greeks of the early classical period saw as important in their own experience. Herakles has been tested by adversity, has prevailed, has grown in understanding, and has in the end attained a kind of mature philosophical calm.
Buitron-Oliver (35-36)
Herakles Cleaning the Augean Stables from a metope from the temple of Zeus at Olympia and the original in the Archaeological Museum, Olympia.
This relief, a metope placed on the east end of the temple, represents the last of Herakles' labours: obtaining the golden apples of immortality. The hero stands in the centre holding up the heavens with the help of his patron goddess Athena. The giant Atlas, who normally supported the skies, had been persuaded to fetch the golden apples from a tree in the garden of the Hesperides, where they were guarded by a dragon, and now he has returned and is presenting them to Herakles. Only Atlas knew the location of the garden, which was popularly imagined to have been in the far west of the known world, beyond the Atlas mountains in North Africa, as the names Hesperides and Atlas suggest.
The composition draws attention to the apples by contrasting the three verticals of the figures with the horizontal of the outstretched arms of Atlas. The rigid verticals of Athena and Herakles emphasise the weight of the heavens, which is enhanced by the folded cushion Herakles uses to help distribute the load. The cushion also brings the figure of the hero level with the goddess and the giant.
Successful completion of the twelve labours was to bring immortality to the mortal hero Herakles as the symbolism here makes clear, for the golden apples were apples from the tree of life.
This relief, a metope placed on the east end of the temple, represents the last of Herakles' labours: obtaining the golden apples of immortality. The hero stands in the centre holding up the heavens with the help of his patron goddess Athena. The giant Atlas, who normally supported the skies, had been persuaded to fetch the golden apples from a tree in the garden of the Hesperides, where they were guarded by a dragon, and now he has returned and is presenting them to Herakles. Only Atlas knew the location of the garden, which was popularly imagined to have been in the far west of the known world, beyond the Atlas mountains in North Africa, as the names Hesperides and Atlas suggest.
The composition draws attention to the apples by contrasting the three verticals of the figures with the horizontal of the outstretched arms of Atlas. The rigid verticals of Athena and Herakles emphasise the weight of the heavens, which is enhanced by the folded cushion Herakles uses to help distribute the load. The cushion also brings the figure of the hero level with the goddess and the giant.
Successful completion of the twelve labours was to bring immortality to the mortal hero Herakles as the symbolism here makes clear, for the golden apples were apples from the tree of life.
Copy of the 1st century CE bust of Pompeius Magnus at the New Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen
Alexander the Great; the bust on the left based on the so-called Hermes Azara attributed to Lysippos - doubtless the statue of Alexander with a bronze lance mentioned by Plutarch- in the Louvre.
Drake beside two copies of the Four Tetrarchs, a porphyry sculpture group of four Roman emperors dating from around 300 CE. Since the Middle Ages it has been fixed to a corner of the façade of St Mark's Basilica in Venice beside which is Dad.
The Apollon of Olympia, part of the group of sculptures found in the west pediment of the Temple of Zeus at Olympia currently in the archaeological museum in Olympia where Dad had his photo taken in front of the real thing. The sculptures of the west pediment depicted the battle of the Lapiths against the Centaurs, following the wedding feast of Peirithous and Hippodamia. The battle of the Lapiths - legendary inhabitants of Thessaly - against the Centaurs - wild forest inhabitants with a human upper half and the body of a horse - frequently acted as a mythological metaphor for the conflicts between the Greeks and the Barbarians. Most of the figures in this turbulent battle scene were discovered during the German excavations of 1875, led by the archaeologist Georg Treu. The juvenile Apollo stood in the centre of the pediment, directing his gaze toward the Lapiths. With his outstretched right arm, he seemed to order an end to the iniquity: the Centaurs had betrayed the Lapiths' hospitality, drunk to excess, and kidnapped their women. Nevertheless, his inclusion appears to be merely figurative; the combatants seem ignorant of his presence, with no other figure in the pediment referring, either in their motion or gesture, to the appearance of the god.
Behind Drake and Apollo is a copy of the famous Artemision Bronze which was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea. It represents either Zeus or Poseidon, at slightly over lifesize and would have held either a thunderbolt, if Zeus, or a trident if Poseidon, depending on the lost attribute held in the figure's right hand. As Caroline Houser writes, "Sometimes the Artemision protector is called 'Poseidon'. Those who would do so have been known to argue that the image must be that of the great sea god since the statue was found in the Mediterranean. But like other statues of totally different subjects, this one went into the sea simply because it was on board a ship that sank. Others cite the example of the Poseidonia coins, overlooking the much weightier evidence presented by the numerous surviving statuettes of Zeus launching his thunderbolt in a pose matching that of the Artemision figure." A major additional problem with that hypothesis is that a trident would obscure the face, especially from the profile view, and comparisons with coins and vase paintings from the same time show such an obscuring pose is extremely unlikely. On the other hand, the statue is essentially a larger version of an extensive series of smaller solid bronze figurines extending back into the late 7th century, all of which strike the same pose and represent Zeus and therefore most scholars identify it as Zeus. Nevertheless, Carol Mattusch argues that "the figure has the potential for violence, is concentrating, poised to throw, but the action is just beginning, and we are left to contemplate the coming demonstration of strength."
Dad in Xi'an in front of the Terracotta Warriors with Drake next to copies showing their original colour as determined by Catharina Blänsdorf, an expert on conservation at the Technical University in Munich.
Dad at the Ara Pacis in Rome with Drake in front of a copy of the south wall from which H. Dütschke proposed in 1880 the correct identity for Antonia and Drusus, but incorrectly saw the toddler as Claudius. Von Domaszewski amended this family identification and correctly saw the child as Germanicus, also suggesting that the Ara Pacis is arranged in family groups thus determining that the two-year-old child could be only Germancius, whose exact birth in 24 May 15 BC is known. This helps prove that the ceremony is an event in 13, although a few scholars continued to argue the ceremony was that of 9 BC (until definitive proof in favour of 13 came out in 1939).
Diana of Versailles and the original copy
