Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture in the Hellenistic World

What a gloomy break it has been here in DC! What to do? What to do? I know go to the National Gallery of Art! I mean, it is DC, there's always something to do. The show to see there is called "Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World". Just over 50 of the couple hundred examples that have been discovered and survived from antiquity. The most stunning aspects? I loved the busts. They were so full of detail and individualism. You feel like you are looking at a man or woman 3000 years old who doesn't look a day of 25 or 45 or 70! And the feet! Well, the footwear. It swear it was all so intricate and folded over on itself with ties and flaps and I honestly could imagine what the actual thing would look like or how you'd go about putting it on... Something so basic and so mysterious in design. Here are some of the works on display. The equestrian was of table top size, while the others here where to human, or faun, scale!

Alexander on Horseback, 100 - 1 BC; bronze, copper, and silver. Lent by the The National Archaeological Museum, Naples (MANN).

Portrait of a North African Man, c. 300 - 150 BC; bronze, copper, enamel, and bone. Lent by the Trustees of the British Museum, London.

Portrait of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus Pontifex, 15 BC - AD 15; bronze. Lent by the National Archeological Museum, Naples (MANN).

Weary Herakles, AD 1 - 100; bronze, copper, and silver. Lent by the Museo Archeologico Nazionale dell' Abruzzo, Villa Frigerj, Chieti.

Dancing Faun (Pan), c. 125 - 100 BC; bronze and silver. Lent by The National Archeological Museum, Naples (MANN).