From Chaos to Order

From Chaos to Order: Greek Geometric Art from the Sol Rabin Collection

By Dr. Bob Bianchi

Some of us, I suppose, might initially be reluctant to attend an exhibition featuring 57 relatively small objects from the obscure Geometric period (about 900-700 BCE) of ancient Greek art placed within the context of ancient Greek epic poetry and philosophy. And, I would also imagine, others among us would suspect that reading labels and slugging our way through an accompanying catalogue would be of boringly little interest. We might even echo the sentiments of Callimachus, a Greek poet writing in Alexandria, Egypt, in the 3rd century BCE, who once famously quipped, “A big book is even bigger pain!”  But hang on for a second, because big things come in small packages!

The first is the sagacious selection of the objects by Dr. Michael Bennett, Senior Curator of Early Western Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, who curated this exhibition. He made the selection from the approximately 700 in the private collection of Mr. Sol Rabin, who has so exclusively focused for decades on acquiring works of art from that period that his collection is universally considered to be the finest of its kind.

Dancing Bull, Greek, (Olympia?), Eighth century BC, Bronze. Helmeted Warrior, Greek, (Thessaly?), Late eighth century BC, Bronze. Peacock, Greek, Eighth century BC, Bronze. All from The Sol Rabin Collection (Peacock photo courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles)

The second is the text, both in the labels and panels in the exhibition and in the catalogue itself. All were written by Dr. Bennett. His main essay represents a decades-long distillation of his own thoughts on the Geometric period. It  is felicitously written and peppered with contemporary references so that it is a very easy read. He defines in very understandable terms the ancient Greek concept of beauty and the Greek definition of that term within the context of his overarching discussion of ordering chaos.

His syntheses of the so-called Presocratic philosophers, his elucidation of the principles of Pythagoras, his discussion of Plato’s famed “simile of the cave,” and his presentation of passages from Aristotle’s Metaphysics are presented in such a reader-friendly manner that the complex becomes simple. Interwoven within those discussions is the place of oral, epic poetry of both Hesiod and Homer, appropriate passages of which he quotes in English translation. Despite its simplicity of style, Dr. Bennett’s essay represents “a fundamental reappraisal of the birth of Greek art,” as the Museum’s Executive Director and CEO, Kristen A. Shepherd, so aptly states in her “Foreword.” I could not agree more.

A fully illustrated catalogue, written by Dr. Bennett, accompanies the exhibition and is available for purchase online.

To begin with, the Geometric period was so labeled by modern scholars because of the Geometric patterns found on decorated vases of the period, two of which are featured in the exhibition. The repetitive patterns of their decoration are linked, correctly so, to the repetitive patterns found in the poetry of Homer. Those patterns, I might add, have been suggested to have been based on contemporary, now lost, textiles, ostensibly woven by women, as exemplified in The Odyssey, where Penelope holds her suitors at bay until she completes the weaving of a funerary shroud for Laertes. As an added bonus, visitors to this exhibition might also want to take in the concurrent exhibition, Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles, in order to understand  just how the repetition of geometric patterns are inherent in the technical mechanics of physical weaving a textile.

One must always remember that the population of the Geometric period of Greece was relatively small, major urban areas rarely containing more than an estimated 5,000 residents. Those residents were neither dominated by the worldwide web nor bombarded by posts on social media. It was an age dominated by oral, epic poetry, and with the exception of Hesiod, Homer was the only show in town. Consequently, the Geometric period of ancient Greek art can indeed be regarded as an age dominated by the epic poetry of Homer. That the poetry of Homer should so dominate an age should come as no surprise. More than 26% of all papyri containing literary texts recovered from the sands of Egypt during the Roman Imperial Period are Homeric! Dr. Bennett is certainly correct, then, in identifying the bronze statuette of a singer accompanying himself on a phorminx as Homer, because the ancient sources clearly state that Hesiod never learned how to play the cithera, the other stringed instrument of the day. 

Dr. Bennett’s linking of  certain passages from the epics of Homer with the subjects represented on the bronzes is compelling. His discussion of the role of lions in those epics is consistent with his interpretation of the bronze group of a lion attacking a man. The bronzesmith responsible for its creation may also have relied on the Greek artistic convention of portraying the “pregnant moment,” that is a point in the action just prior to its climax. The lion is about to fell its prey, but is not devouring it. The choice is comparable to the scene in Sophocles Oedipus Rex, wherein the protagonist resolves to blind himself, then exits so that the act is anticipated but not consummated on stage.

Man and Lion, Greek, 8th century BC, Bronze, The Sol Rabin Collection

And there are statuettes of horses, horses galore in this exhibition. Here again, Dr. Bennett is doubtless correct when he observes that this repetition of a type is not a mechanical, knee-jerk, simple replication, but represents a repetitive pursuit of perfection and clarity. To my mind, these horses are also evocative of passages in The Iliad (17, 474-8) where the goddess Hera grants one of Achilles’s horses the ability to speak and in so doing predicts the imminent death of his master; and the final lines of that same poem, “…and thus was their burial of Hector, prince of charioteers.”

Installation shot courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg.

I would like to conclude with two observations in order to indicate just how thought-provoking this exhibition and its accompany catalogue really are. First, the inclusion of three statuettes of nude women is certainly noteworthy inasmuch as the nude female disappears from the repertoire of Greek art until its reintroduction in the 4th century BCE by Praxiteles. Might these statuettes also represent one of the three goddess whose beauty Paris was to judge, and whose decision sparked the Trojan War? And, second, should we not place Mr. Rabin’s pattern of collecting into the context of the longevity of some of the objects in his collection? The nude, hatted figure driving the horse-drawn cart exhibits unmistakable signs of ancient repairs, suggesting it was long-lived because of its perceived value. I think we owe Mr. Rabin a debt of gratitude for likewise perpetuating the longevity of these objects, the value of which Dr. Bennett has so eloquently explained.

Nude Female with Conical Hat, Greek, 8th century BC, Bronze, The Sol Rabin Collection
Wheeled Cart, Greek, (Samos?), Eighth century BC, Bronze, The Sol Rabin Collection

Dr. Bob Bianchi received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, after which he served as curator in the Department of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. During his career he has been the recipient of several post-doctoral fellowships, has subsequently served as a curator in museums in the States, Europe, and the Middle  East, has excavated for 17 seasons in Egypt, and has taught as an adjunct professor at three universities.  To date, he has published 96 books, 378 journal articles, and book reviews, and has appeared in 105 telecasts worldwide. As a critical art historian with a specialization in Ptolemaic Egypt, he continues to explore intercultural artistic connections between Egypt, Greece, and Rome. He recently retired, as chief curator, after almost twenty years of service with the Foundation Gandur pour l’Art, Genéve. Dr. Bianchi continues to publish, address international congresses, and serve as a fine art advisor and certified appraiser to collectors and institutions. He can be reached at Dr.BobBianchi@gmail.com.

From Chaos to Order: Greek Geometric Art from the Sol Rabin Collection is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg in downtown St. Petersburg, Florida, through Sunday, April 11, 2021. A fully illustrated catalogue, written by Dr. Bennett, accompanies the exhibition and is available for purchase online.

RELATED MUSEUM PROGRAMMING

Thursday, January 14, 7 pm- 8:30 pm
From Chaos to Order with Dr. Michael Bennett and Dr. Sol Rabin
An online ZOOM conversation between Senior Curator of Early Western Art Michael Bennett Ph.,D. and art collector Sol Rabin, Ph.D. to discuss the special exhibition. Dr. Rabin has been collecting in this area for over 30 years, and the vast majority of the works in his collection have never been on public display.  Free for MFA members; Not-yet members $20. Online registration required.

ANCIENT THEATER AND THE CINEMA

By Dr. Bob Bianchi

You may not realize it, but if you’re a movie buff you may be surprised to learn about just how indebted Hollywood is to the civilizations of Greece and Rome. I’m not just talking about the obvious, like Gladiator (2000) or 300 (2006), but about films like the eleven in the Star Wars series. As one critic has perceptibly noted, filmmaker George Lucas admits his indebtedness to Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy (1951), for which Asimov likewise acknowledges his indebtedness to Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776).  All rely on the binary interaction of benevolent forces of good against malevolent powers of evil, think Caligula (1980).

And that is why I am so enamored of Ancient Theater and the Cinemaon view through April 5th at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, carefully researched and curated by Michael Bennett, Ph.D., Senior Curator of Early Western Art, and mounted to great effect in the intimate, upstairs Works on Paper gallery. This exhibition features magnificent ancient works of art, principal among which are outstanding examples of theater-themed vases from Magna Graecia, as the southern part of the boot of the Italian peninsula was affectionately named in antiquity.

Installation view of the exhibition Ancient Theater and the Cinema.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Art St. Peterburg.

Upon entering an environment bathed in a deep red, one is encouraged to follow the prescribed line of march, dictated by the carefully chosen and thematically grouped movie stills, on loan from Tampa’s University of South Florida Special Collections Library, which line the four gallery walls. One looks at the stills, one walks, and one turns only to find a series of exhibition cases conveniently arranged in the center of the gallery with each object in each of those cases presenting its principal side toward the stills. You do not have to walk around the case in an attempt to figure out what to look at first.

Object Head of Dionysus
2nd – 1st century B.C.
Bronze, copper-tin alloy, silver-plated eyes
Anonymous loan L 2019.7.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg.

And while you may recognize the famous actors and actresses and the productions from which the stills are taken, you will probably be introduced to the theater-themed ancient art for the very first time. So here’s a quick “Theater-themed Ancient Art for Dummies.” Ancient Greek drama developed around the cult of Dionysus, popularly regarded as the god of wine and the party. However, via aspects of his cult’s transformational characteristics, Dionysus became the embodiment of impersonation or role-playing. There is an original Greek, hollow-cast bronze portrait of Dionysus (on anonymous loan) on view in this gallery, one of only six ancient Greek originals in America. Dionysus became the patron of ancient drama, which, as we know it today, was invented in Athens, and consisted of annual competitions with prizes for tragedy and comedy. The trio of award-winning dramatists—Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides—are well known; the authors of comedy, less so. And that comedy evolved from the often very personal and satiric attacks in the comedy of Aristophanes to the phlyax (pronounced fli-ax) plays, derived from the Greek noun meaning gossip players. Introduced during the fourth century BC in Magna Graecia, phlyax plays were basically absurd or ridiculous portrayals of traditional myths and daily life or even satirical burlesques of classical tragedy. Less than a half a dozen of the authors of these plays are known by name, and even less is known about the actual titles of their plays or their plots. Consequently, the depictions of phlyax actors on the vases exhibited in this gallery play a critical role in one’s understanding and assessment of those lost plays. Like those plays, the names of the painters and potters of these vases from Magna Graecia are generally not preserved, so that scholars have traditionally grouped vases which are stylistically similar to one another together, and have named the painter after the most significant example of that group, usually by the name of the collection in which that particular vase is housed.

Object Red-Figure Bell Krater (Wine Mixing Vessel)
South Italian, Apulian, c. 375-350 B.C.
Attributed to the Berkeley Painter Ceramic
On loan from the Collection of Willian Knight Zewadski.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg.

A leitmotif, or recurrent theme, of the depiction of those phlyax actors on those vases is an inherent eroticism, suggested by the bawdy, salacious nature of their content. A case in point is the subject matter of a red-figure (so-called because the figures are reserved in the red color of the clay) bell krater, or ancient kind of punch bowl in which wine was mixed with water, attributed to the Berkeley Painter working in the south Italian city of Apulia. The phlyax wears a padded bodysuit emphasizing his pot belly and cellulite buttocks to which has been attached an oversized phallus, which incidentally, is often associated with the aroused, male followers of Dionysus. He holds a crooked cane as he confronts a (male actor in the guise of a) female figure, clothed in a loosely-fitting garment, who gesticulates with her right hand. 

Photo Credit: United Artists presents “Satyricon” (1969) starring Martin Potter and Hiram Keller (Produzioni Europee Associati), directed by Federico Fellini and produced by Alberto Grimaldi, film still. @MGM. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts St. Peterburg.

Although no phlyax plays have survived, one can gain a vicarious impression of their nature with the screening at the  MFA on March 5th from 7-9 pm of Federico Fellini’s Satyricon (1969), based upon the novel of the same name by Petronius (circa 27-66 CE), writing during the reign of the infamous Roman Emperor Nero. (This screening is free to museum members; non-members will be charged the museum admission fee plus an event fee of $5.00.) 

The theater stills on view were gifted to the University of South Florida by William Knight Zewadski, who also loaned from his personal collection most of the original antiquities on view in this exhibition. Curator Michael Bennett will interview Bill Zewadski as part of the museum series In the Shade of the Stoa on February 7th, from 11-12 pm. Mr. Zewadski will also present a lecture, Drama in Ancient Greek Pottery with Bill Zewadski, at the Museum on March 10th, from 2-3 pm, in an event which is sponsored by and free for members of the Museum’s Friends of Decorative Arts. (For those who are not, the usual admission plus lecture fees apply. All planning on attending are advised to arrive before 1:45 pm.)

One can only be impressed by the synergy generated by this particular type of programming which enables visitors to confront original works of ancient art in tandem with vintage film stills and select screenings, and made possible in large part by the passion and vision of a local collector.

Dr. Bob Bianchi received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, after which he served as curator in the Department of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Middle Eastern Art at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. During his career he has been the recipient of several post-doctoral fellowships, has subsequently served as a curator in museums in the States, Europe, and the Middle East, has excavated for 17 seasons in Egypt, and has taught as an adjunct professor at three universities.  To date, he has published 96 books, 376 journal articles, and book reviews, and has appeared in 96 telecasts worldwide. As a critical art historian with a specialization in Ptolemaic Egypt, he continues to explore intercultural artistic connections between Egypt, Greece, and Rome. He recently retired, as chief curator, after almost twenty years of service with the Foundation Gandur pour l’Art, Genéve. Dr. Bianchi continues to publish, address international congresses, and serve as a fine art advisor and certified appraiser to collectors and institutions.  He can be reached at thedrbob@verizon.net.

ANCIENT THEATER AND THE CINEMA is on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg in downtown St. Petersburg, FL, through Sunday, April 5, 2020.

RELATED PROGRAMMING

Friday, February 7, 11 am- 12:00 pm
In the Shade of the Stoa with Dr. Michael Bennett — Theater in the Classical World with Bill Zewadski
Free with Museum admission

Thursday, March 5, 7–9 pm
Ancient Theater and the Cinema Film Series
Satyricon (1969)

Cost: $5, plus Museum admission

From the Museum’s website: Petronius’ Satyricon, written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome, inspired Fellini’s 1969 Italian fantasy. The film is divided into nine episodes, following the scholar Encolpius and his friend Ascyltus as they try to win the heart of the young boy Gitón, whom they both love, within the film’s depiction of a surreal and dreamlike Roman landscape and culture. Vincent Canby of The New York Times noted that Satyricon was “the quintessential Fellini film, a travelogue through an unknown galaxy, a magnificently realized movie of his and our wildest dreams.”

Tuesday, March 10, 2-3 pm
Friends of the Decorative Arts Lecture Series
Drama in Ancient Greek Pottery with Bill Zewadski
$10, plus Museum admission; $10 for MFA members; and free for MFA Friends of Decorative Arts members. 
Complimentary coffee and cookies.
Doors for the lecture do not open until 1:45 pm. 
Early attendees are invited to view the gallery.