ARTS
Ancient Greece beckons
-Bruce Boucher has a cultural encounter on Venice's Grand Canal
he Western Greeks is the latest in a series of 'cultural encounters' — exhibi- tions to you and me — sponsored by Fiat in its opulent Venetian centre, Palazzo Grassi. Over the past decade, these shows have reflected pan-European themes, oscil- lating between contemporary art and the origins of Western civilisation. Palazzo Grassi has given us the Celts and Phoeni- cians as well as Duchamp and Modigliani, and now the focus is on the splendidly communautaire subject of Greek art in the Western Mediterranean.
The motivation for the exhibition lies in the pervasiveness of Greek art and thought In the European tradition, as reflected in the colonisation of southern Italy and Sicily from the 8th to the 2nd century BC. Aes- thetic criteria have largely guided the choice of artefacts that exemplify here the workings of the Greek mind at the zenith of its political and intellectual influence. In terms of contemporary scholarship, this is neither politically correct nor avant-garde, but it has resulted in some of the most beautiful figures of Greek art one could wish to see assembled on the Venetian Grand Canal.
Gae Aulenti is credited with the design of The Western Greeks, but there is little sense of a guiding hand at Palazzo Grassi: Objects are displayed on two main floors, vaguely following chronological order and evoking broad topics, such as navigation and initial contacts, early Greek settle- ments in Italy and Sicily, the flourishing of great centres like Syracuse and Paestum, and the gradual melding of Greek with Roman culture during the 2nd century BC. Photographs and screeds establish a con- text of sorts, but the visitor is left to get on With it, meaning that serendipity soon takes over. The main themes are established with the first work to greet visitors at the top of the main staircase, a stunning figure of a young athlete from western Sicily. Datable to the middle of the 5th century, its form is revealed by a tunic girded at the chest and falling about the torso and legs in sinuous patterns. Though the legs are slightly too long for the body, the marble is credible enough to be the subject of debate: was it booty from Greece or made by a Greek artist working for a local patron?
The Western Greeks does not set out to challenge accepted notions of ancient art, but it does underscore how distinctive Greek art was in antiquity and how coher- ent Greek culture remained across the Mediterranean. Even an archaic work like the famous panel of the 'Running Gorgon' from Syracuse is conceived as a plastic fig- ure, unlike the very flat relief sculpture of Egypt and the Near East but consistent with contemporary reliefs on the Greek mainland. Greek fascination with mimesis, the imitation of nature, also led to a revo- lutionary approach to painting at the turn of the 5th century, now best appreciated through red-figure painting on vases and plates. Many of these are on display at Palazzo Grassi, but what is even more spec- tacular is a rare example of wall-painting in this style, from the early 5th century 'tomb of the diver'. Executed in Paestum, the tomb was the work of a Greek artist adopt- ing some of the themes found„on the walls of Etruscan tombs and Greek vases. While the tomb's walls show conventional scenes of dining and music-making, the ceiling slab depicts a man plunging into water and conveys a strong sense of spatial setting by the merest suggestion of landscape.
The exhibition at Palazzo Grassi is at its best when a few striking objects place an aspect of Greek culture in context. There is a perceptive treatment of Hellenistic satire through 3rd-century vases with buffoons and the debauched Silenus, complemented by a miniature stage and actors in terracot- ta. The extraordinary skill of Greek bronze-casting is conveyed by a beautiful series of vases, helmets and even a frag- mentary shield. Also, the question of authenticity is admirably displayed by the presence of the marble reliefs known as the Ludovisi and Boston 'thrones'. Both emerged in Rome during the late 19th cen- tury, but while the Ludovisi is recognised as an unusual masterpiece of the mid 5th cen- tury, the Boston sculpture enjoys a more controversial press. In Venice, visitors have a rare opportunity to compare the two 'thrones', and the Ludovisi reliefs of a naked girl piping, a matron burning incense and an astonishing birth of Aphrodite have a tautness of line and narrative coherence absent from the Boston sculpture. At best, the latter could be considered as ineptly carved by a provincial sculptor; at worst, it is a very clever fake, or, perhaps, a tribute to the perennial attraction of ancient Greece in modern times.
The Western Greeks is open every day from 10 to Z at Palazzo Grassi, San Samuele, Venice, until 8 December.
Bronze bust of old man, 5th century BC Painted terracotta tile with running gorgon, 6th c. BC Terracotta figure, 530-520 BC
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