Visit to the museum…

Bare with me here…this post is about my visit to the Portland Art Museum to see ancient Greek, Chinese, Roman artifacts and statuary. I had moved back to the RV park behind the Stagecoach tavern after spending several days helping Jeff & Jackie remodel their kitchen and I’d noticed the ad in the local paper about this show. Since it’s all the way downtown, and I’m out in Troutdale, I took the bus to the nearest Max light rail station and took the train downtown. I can catch the bus just steps from my RV.

The Max trains are very comfortable, fast, and allow relaxation on the way downtown. I use them as often as I can, and these days usually every time I go downtown. You can see that the weather is typical for Portland, but if you live here long enough this type of weather is comfortable. It’s when it’s been raining for several day or months that it drags on you.

Jumped off Max at Pioneer Square (Portland’s living room) and hiked the last few blocks to Portland’s Park Blocks. One of the oldest sections of town, this area has many old fountains and statues.

And, right behind me is the Portland Art Museum. So, after enjoying some of the old, but not ancient artworks here in downtown Portland, I enter the museum and buy my ticket. Just around the corner is an ancient Chinese art exhibit…which I didn’t know about. I am still using my old Kodak camera, and I’m not allowed to use flash in the museum so some of these pictures will look a little out of focus. That’s because it’s hard to hold it still and the shutter speed is slow so as to gather as much light as possible. Plus the camera is sort of beat up and doesn’t always work right.

 

The Chinese stuff is amazing. And thousands of years old. I’m surprised that the museum wasn’t advertizing this exhibit as much as the Greek statuary. I supposed it was because of the Embarrassment of Riches they had to display. Spent an hour just in this section of the museum.

And by modern, I mean nearly 100 years old. Here in Portland, there was a thriving arts scene nearly from the founding of the city. Really kicked into high gear in the late 1880’s and early 20th century. Waxing and waning as you’d expect based on the local economy over the years.

This diorama of Olympia, Greece depicts what historians believe and know the Olympics training and competition grounds looked like after maturing in Greece for a few hundred years. The Olympics, as a sports competition, have been around for 2,800 years in one form or another. The stadium, strangely, didn’t look like your typical stadium. In the right of the picture above, fans watched the events while surrounding that long rectangle area. It was originally surrounded by a wall and a curious finding in some of the remaining wall were these small holes chipped into it. Ancient historians point out that woman were not allowed to view the ongoing Olympics under penalty of death…but businessmen of the time chiseled holes into the wall to allow women, after payment of a few coins, to watch.  All the male contestants would compete in the nude, except for protective accoutrements, sandals, and leather helmets in some cases.  Don’t get to romantic an ideal of the ancient Olympics, many of the competitions resulted in horrendous injuries or death. Because of the institutionalized slaughter, the Olympics were outlawed in 393AD.

The statuary is the highlight of this visit. Although ancient Greek & Roman artisans depicted their models as though perfect, bereft of warts and moles, they’re still amazing works showing a fluidity of motion and generally, a zest for life. The vase in the background, circa 500BC, is typical of the pottery that accompanied the exhibit. Stunning isn’t it?

After the Romans conquered the Greeks, there was a Roman artistic burst of statuary mainly copying the ancient Greek style. And, the Romans rebuilt many of the Greek historical sites which had fallen to ruin by the hand of man, or nature.

I still had to use my camera without flash and out of the several shots I took of ‘The Discus Thrower’, this is the only one that came out well enough to post. But, it’s amazing, you guys should see it in person.

The above statue is thought to be a copy of an even older Greek statue. The curious thing about it is the mostly masculine male form topped with a very feminine head and face. It’s as though the artist forgot he was doing a male statue. Then the little girl he has his arm around has a mostly masculine head & face. Almost like there’s a joke going on that we don’t get anymore.

 

After spending 2 hours enjoying some ancient artworks, I wander up into the modern section of old historical art. I’ll post some of that next time. But first, I’ll leave you with a modern rendition of a classical Greek pose, the Dying Gaul. This piece is posed similar to the original Greek statue and uses modern plastics. The artist decided to leave all the items a Greek artist would have eliminated from their work, ie, warts and moles. I think it’s more a technical exercise then a work of art, but each time I see it, I’m a little more impressed. In another 5 years, I’ll probably have bent my opinion to accept it as art. Does it make any difference what I think? Absolutely not. It’s what you think, as art is highly personal.

Thought I’d add a link to the marble Roman copy of this lost Greek bronze: the Dying Gaul  (this link takes you to a video that rotates around the work). As you can see from the photo below there are substantial differences between the original piece and the plastic copy above. Not quite sure that diminishes the work above or enhances it. Again, POV.

The head in this copy is poised slightly higher, perhaps to indicate a modern view that we are no longer slaves to our masters or to nature, as was the tragic Gaul. Also this modern rendition leaves out the torc around the original subjects neck, which was a common ornament worn by Celts…and a Gaul, western France was once named ‘Gaul’, is really a Celt. It also leaves out the bleeding wound below the right breast of the original.  As it leaves out the broken sword. There seems to be a tip of the hat by the artist to the ancient artists that generally left out all warts, moles and bodily imperfections. In this case, by including them. (Occasionally, the ancient artists, as with the original this was copied from, showed battle wounds and scars on their works).

This modern rendition of the Dying Gaul to me is remote, removed, and distant from emotion. Whereas the original is just the opposite. Look (link above) at how the head is bowed and the large muscle in the right arm seems to be on the verge of shaking. It’s pose and subject draws us in to help, to care about him, to see that his death will be tragic. Not just to his own family and friends, but to humanity. The more I compare the original to this piece, the less I like this ‘modern’ rendition (perhaps comparing is a fatal mistake – but the artist’s choice was to call it the Dying Gaul). This modern piece seems to me to be an extraordinary technical exercise, but devoid of emotion. You all can make your own decisions about the comparisons between the two works.

One thing I find fascinating about the ancient, Rome copy, is that the original was around when it was copied. Where did it go? Who owned it, and to what end did it come? There must be a fascinating story to go with it’s loss. Perhaps the Vandals or Visigoths destroyed it. Perhaps a jealous husband or an angry wife. Perhaps stolen and delivered to someone who didn’t properly care for it and allowed it to fall to ruin through the ravages of time. Perhaps destroyed to recover the valuable bronze it was made of. Perhaps the early church destroyed it as it was created by those ‘infidel’ Greeks. Intriguing story I’d imagine.

I have 40-50 more shots of ancient art. Also have another 20-30 shots of more recent paintings then some more of the Chinese stuff. But I’m getting tired of posting today so…maybe some other time I’ll put them up. See ya!