A Corinthian Cup and a Euboean Lekythos

1968 ◽  
Vol 88 ◽  
pp. 140-141
Author(s):  
A. D. Ure
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Outline Drawing ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
General Appearance

In Volume lxix of this Journal I drew attention to three little vases in Reading University belonging to the group published by Wide in AM xxvi (1901) 143 f., at that time regarded as Boeotian and connected by Wide with Mykalessos. They are now known to be Corinthian, since vases and fragments in the same style have been found in the Potters' Quarter at Corinth and are now displayed in Corinth Museum. The general appearance of the vases from this workshop is far removed from that of normal Corinthian, which in the fifth century was decorated largely with floral or linear patterns. When compared with Corinthian red-figure and other vases with outline drawing the childish aspect of many of the figures, their long heavy eyelashes, dimples, chubby limbs, feet with toes on the side facing the spectator, all combine to set them in a field apart. Some of the subjects too are unusual. Among the divinities there is Demeter enthroned with torch, corn and poppies on a plate in Athens; bearded Herakles with club and bow inside cups in Reading and Athens; a youthful Herakles, weary and thirsty, leaning on his club as he fills his cup at a fountain, on a pyxis in the British Museum; Dionysos as Liknites, Winnower, horned and wearing a fawn-skin, holding fork and shovel, on a pyxis in Reading. Among the mortals we find a slinger, a girl playing kottabos and a centaur watching a tortoise inside cups in Athens, London and Leningrad. An unpublished cup in Athens, formerly in the Empedocles collection, shows a warrior advancing with his spear at the ready; another unpublished in Oxford, on loan to the Ashmolean Museum, has Oedipus and the sphinx. The only floral subject that I know is seen in the Reading cup with a rosebud between sprays. There is a replica of this (but with the bud black instead of red) in a cup with a tall foot in Corinth Museum.

On the Amphilaphorchidinae, A New Subfamily of Proteocephalid Cestodes, and Myzophorus admonticellia, gen. et sp.n., Parasitic in Pirinampus spp. from the Amazon

Parasitology ◽  
1934 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. N. F. Woodland
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
The Body ◽  
Entire Body ◽  
Adipose Fin ◽  
General Appearance

“Piranabú,” “Piranampú” or “Piranampú” (the last according to Goeldi, 1898) are local names on the Amazon applied to the siluroid fish which, so far as it is possible to determine from memory and from the rough sketches and notes which I made at the time, is the modern Pirinampus pirinampus (Spix). This fish, of which I examined eight examples, attains a length of at least 60 cm., has an elongated adipose fin more than one-third the length of the entire body, microscopic scales, possesses maxillary barbels about half the length of the body, and in general appearance closely resembles the figure (Tab. VIII, a) of “Pimelodus ctenodus” provided by Spix (1829). I am much indebted to Mr J. R. Norman, of the British Museum, for his kind assistance in identification.

‘What leaf-fringed legend …?’ A cup by the Sotades painter in London.

1986 ◽  
Vol 106 ◽  
pp. 58-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Griffiths
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
First Impressions ◽  
Acid Test

The British Museum possesses, and displays as a group, three elegant white-ground kylikes potted around the middle of the fifth century by Sotades, and painted by that skilled, inventive and intelligent miniaturist dubbed by Beazley ‘The Sotades Painter’. First impressions suggest, and further investigation confirms, that the three make up a coherent set, designed and executed according to a pre-conceived plan. This paper will have something to say about the nature of that plan, but most of it will necessarily be occupied with a prior, and fundamental, problem: for the dramatic and very individual scene illustrated on one of the cups has so far resisted all attempts at interpretation, and I have a new proposal to make. The acid test of that identification will be whether it turns out to form an appropriately complementary element to the other two scenes, and whether all three taken together make sense as a mid-fifth century cultural ensemble.

scholarly journals A ‘Polycleitan’ Head in the British Museum

1911 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 21-30
Author(s):  
Ernest A. Gardner
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Direct Influence

The artistic character of Polycleitus is attested by ancient writers in remarkably clear and definite language; his position at the head of the Argive School of sculpture during the latter half of the fifth century also seems easy to understand. Friedrich's identification of the Doryphoros, which has met with universal acceptance, supplied the necessary link between the literary evidence and extant sculpture; and with this help the Diadoumenos and the Amazon soon fell into their places. But even here the study of the work of Polycleitus is by no means free from difficulty; the extant copies of the Diadoumenos vary perhaps more than those of any other well-known work, and there are associated with them other statues, whether variations on the same type or different renderings of the same subject, which have added to the confusion. Then there is a whole mass of statues which have been loosely grouped together as ‘Polycleitan,’ some of them perhaps copies of the master's own work, others probably to be attributed to his pupils or his direct influence, others more remotely affected by the traditions of his school; and in some of these the influence of Myron, of Cresilas, or of other sculptors, has to be recognised and assigned its proper value. It is evident therefore that the study of a ‘Polycleitan’ head offers a problem by no means so simple as it appears at first sight. At present we are concerned only with one of the numerous types that fall into this category; but it is difficult if not impossible to consider any such type without some general discussion of the larger class to which it belongs.

scholarly journals Museum of Light: The New Acropolis Museum and the Campaign to Repatriate the Elgin Marbles

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
James M. Beresford
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Natural Light ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Public Display ◽  
Bright Sunlight ◽  
The Temple ◽  
Of Greece

It is almost half-a-dozen years since the New Acropolis Museum in Athens was inaugurated in June 2009, following a gestation period of over three decades. Before, during and after the construction of the building, the importance of natural light was frequently emphasised by the Museum’s Swiss-French architect, Bernard Tschumi, as well as many Greek government officials, archaeologists, and other heritage professionals. The manner in which the same bright sunlight illuminates both the Parthenon and the temple’s decorative sculptures which are now on display in the Museum, is also routinely referenced by campaigners advocating a return of those sculptures that were removed from the Athenian Acropolis on the orders of Lord Elgin between 1801–03 and subsequently shipped to London. Following the purchase of the collection by the British government in 1816, the Marbles of the Elgin Collection were presented to the British Museum, where they are presently on display in Room 18, the Duveen Gallery. However, for more than two centuries it has been maintained that the sculptures can only be truly appreciated when viewed in the natural light of Athens. Even before the completion of the New Acropolis Museum there were bitter attacks on the manner in which the Marbles are displayed in the British Museum, and the quality of the illumination afforded to the sculptures in the Duveen Gallery. The aesthetics of the Attic light has therefore taken its place as one of the principal weapons in the armoury of Greek officials and international campaigners seeking the return of the Marbles removed by Lord Elgin. Nonetheless, this paper will argue against the accepted orthodoxy that the New Acropolis Museum replicates the original light conditions many of the sculptures from the temple experienced when on the Parthenon. Indeed, this article will dispute the goal of many architects, politicians, and heritage professionals of the need ensure that, when on public display, all of the Parthenon sculptures are bathed in bright natural light. The ability to display the Marbles in the sun-drenched gallery of the New Acropolis Museum forges a powerful link binding the environment of Classical Athens with the present-day capital of Greece, offering politicians and activists seeking the repatriation of the Elgin Marbles a potent weapon wielded to great effect. However, the politically motivated design parameters laid on the museum, requiring the building admit vast amounts of natural Attic light, has destroyed the architectural context the Marbles were displayed in when originally affixed to the temple in the fifth century BC.

Whip-tops

1929 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-219
Author(s):  
Cecil Harcourt-Smith
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Third

In the British Museum there are two fifth-century Attic vases (Nos. D 9 and D 10) of bee-hive shape (Fig. 1), of which the decoration consists of a series of mouldings alternately red, white, and black, with a black rim; the interior is white, also with a black rim. In their general style, their technique, and their decoration they are very similar to another vase of the same collection, D 8, a phiale mesomphalos, which bears the signature of the potter Sotades. All three vases were in the Branteghem Collection, and were described by Froehner, in his Catalogue of that Collection, under Nos. 160–162.In the third volume of the Catalogue of Vases in the British Museum I described these vases, D 9 and D 10, as ‘Mastoi’; this is a form which, of course, owes its name to the pretty fancy which derives it from the model of Aphrodite's breast, and so was a favourite form of dedication in her temple at Paphos.

Containing Tragedy: Rhetoric and Self-Representation in Sophocles' "Philoctetes"

1998 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas M. Falkner
Keyword(s):  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Self ◽  
Subject Position ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
Inherent Value ◽  
Dramatic Theory ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
Dramatic Practice

This essay examines "Philoctetes" as an exercise in self-representation by looking at the self-referential and metatheatrical dimensions of the play. After suggesting an enlarged understanding of metatheater as "a particularly vigorous attempt to engage the audience at the synthetic and thematic levels of reading," I examine "Philoctetes" as a self-conscious discourse on tragedy, tragic production, and tragic experience, one which participates in a larger conversation in the late fifth century about the ethics of tragedy, including the remarks of Gorgias on theatrical deception (ἀπάτη). The play points up its own constructedness in a variety of ways, most strikingly in the theatrical character of the intrigue by which Odysseus deceives Philoctetes, which provides a play within a play and a representation of texts and readers, plays and spectators. In laying bare the kinds of strategies and techniques that undergird this "intratext," "Philoctetes" offers a model of tragedy and of the tragic poet based on power, deceit, and manipulation. Yet by attributing these characteristics to the moral deficiencies of its internal creator and by demonstrating his failure to achieve his ends, "Philoctetes" rejects such a theater of sophistry. At the same time, the play considers issues of textual reception by providing in Philoctetes an audience for this internal text and a protocol of reading that suggest a more positive model of tragic response. "Philoctetes" uses this model to offer the spectator a subject position that affirms the inherent value of reading tragedy, a humanistic model of reading based upon the audience's identification with and sympathy for the tragic protagonist. Sophocles thus finds in this exercise in self-representation a way to frame critical questions on dramatic theory and to define his own dramatic practice.

scholarly journals A Vase in Form of a Bust of Athene

1895 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. 184-187
Author(s):  
Cecil Smith
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Front Part ◽  
Lower Base ◽  
Plain Surface ◽  
Conventional Manner ◽  
Two Sides ◽  
Back Part

In the latter part of 1893 the British Museum acquired the Attic vase which is represented in Plate V. (E 716 of the new Catalogue). The photographic reduction barely serves to convey a summary impression of this finely conceived work, but can give no idea of the subtler refinement of modelling and surface, nor of the delicate colouring which is still fairly preserved, and which would defy reproduction in any process. It belongs to the class of vases which in the latter part of the fifth century came greatly in vogue in Attic pottery, and in which the front part is usually pressed in a mould, in the technique of terracotta statuettes, the back part is varnished and coloured like a red-figure vase of the period: the whole form is usually based on that of the aryballos or acorn-alabastron.The present instance is an aryballos in the form of a bust of Athene: it is nearly intact, the only part broken away being the calix-form lip of the vase. The height as it stands is 20 cm., and perhaps 2 more should be added for the missing lip. The bust, cut off immediately below the lower base of the breasts, rests on a plinth about 1 cm. high, which is varnished black in front, and at back is painted with a band of egg moulding. It is modelled entirely in the round, but the plain surface of the drapery falling from the crown of the head down the back, and the back of the helmet, are treated as the back of an ordinary red-figure vase, and are decorated with the patterns usual in this class of aryballos: the neck of the vase rises vertically out of the crown of the helmet, at the point where the support for the crest would naturally be attached, and the ribbed handle, springing from the upper part of it, broadly suggests the lines which the back part of such a crest would follow. The true crest has been treated in the conventional manner which is not unfrequently found in fifth century art adapted to helmets intended to be seen from the front; that is, it is bisected longitudinally, and the two sides are turned outwards to the front in such a way that they form a continuous crest extending from ear to ear; in this case they serve the double purpose of a screen to mark the neck and handle of the vase, and a division between the polychrome and varnished portions of this part of the vase.

A Four-horse Chariot Relief of the Fifth Century B.C.

1967 ◽  
Vol 62 ◽  
pp. 19-26
Author(s):  
Geoffrey B. Waywell
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Calcareous Deposit ◽  
British School ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Right ◽  
Votive Offerings

Two fragments of relief, one in the British Museum, the other in the British School at Athens, have been found to adjoin.The first piece is British Museum 814 (Plate 1). Museum Marbles ix (1842) 172 f., pl. 38. 2; A. H. Smith, BMC Sculpt, i (1892) 373; Furtwängler, Sammlung Sabouroff, text to pl. XXVI; Reisch, Griechische Weihgeschenke 50; Rouse, Greek Votive Offerings 177; W. H. Hyde, Olympic Victor Monuments (1921) 268; Rizzo, Bolletino d'Arte viii (1938) 348, fig. 25; C. C. Vermeule III, JHS lxxv (1955) 105, fig. 5.Provenance, Athens. H. 0·70 m., W. 0·82 m., Th. 0·08 m., Depth of relief 0·03 m. Broken left and below. Above and to the right is a narrow frame of peculiar type, which comprises a flat fillet with chamfered inner margin, forming a mitred joint in the upper right corner. The marble is of fine and even crystal with a definite golden-brown patina, and is therefore likely to be Pentelic. The surface is generally very worn, and some higher features, such as the horses' heads, the face of the charioteer, and the nearside of the Nike above, are completely obliterated. Besides this, a calcareous deposit, mentioned in Museum Marbles as having damaged the stone, has at some time been lightly chiselled away. Hence the coarse appearance of, for example, the upper right corner of the frame, the background to the right of the charioteer, and the area in front of Nike's head.The scene shows a four-horse chariot travelling at speed to the left, driven by a charioteer dressed in the usual long, sleeveless chiton, which swirls back in the wind.

scholarly journals Wayland's Smithy, Berkshire

1921 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. R. Peers ◽  
Reginald A. Smith
Keyword(s):  
British Museum ◽  
Fifth Century

In Northern mythology Wayland the Smith corresponds to the Roman Vulcan or the Greek Hephaestus; and his name cannot have been attached to the well-known group of sarsen slabs in Berkshire till the Teutonic invaders reached the upper Thames in the fifth century. This cunning worker in metals appears on the Franks casket in the British Museum, dating from soon after 700; and the monument is mentioned under the name of Wayland's Smithy in a charter of King Eadred to Aelfheh dated 955.

Crystalline order to a resolution of 4.7 A in the sheath of Methanospirilium hungatii: A cross-beta structure

1984 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 214-215
Author(s):  
Murray Stewart ◽  
T.J. Beveridge ◽  
D. Sprott
Keyword(s):  
Cell Wall ◽  
Single Layer ◽  
Uranyl Acetate ◽  
Optical Diffraction ◽  
Tube Axis ◽  
Basic Subunit ◽  
Beta Structure ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Protein Treatment ◽  
General Appearance

The archaebacterium Methanospirillum hungatii has a sheath as part of its cell wall which is composed mainly of protein. Treatment with dithiothreitol or NaOH released the intact sheaths and electron micrographs of this material negatively stained with uranyl acetate showed flattened hollow tubes, about 0.5 μm diameter and several microns long, in which the patterns from the top and bottom were superimposed. Single layers, derived from broken tubes, were also seen and were more simply analysed. Figure 1 shows the general appearance of a single layer. There was a faint axial periodicity at 28.5 A, which was stronger at irregular multiples of 28.5 A (3 and 4 times were most common), and fine striations were also seen at about 3° to the tube axis. Low angle electron diffraction patterns (not shown) and optical diffraction patterns (Fig. 2) from these layers showed a complex meridian (as a result of the irregular nature of the repeat along the tube axis) which showed a clear maximum at 28.5 A, consistent with the basic subunit spacing.

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