Meditations on Gallery 153

 


This gallery is not just a room like many others but a long passageway with a high arched ceiling and tall white pillars to create the effect I think of a temple of the ancient world.   This statue of a young man is actually a composite.  The lower part is Roman from the first century CE and the upper part a more modern recasting.  Like many of the works in this gallery it is a mix of various centuries and includes original works and copies.  It raises the question of what is real and what not and does it matter.  If there is beauty in the contemplation or an object does it matter its provenance.  These classical statues became a model for artists of much later periods.  They were highly influential in the Renaissance and beyond.  Because this is such a large gallery I spend a lot of time roaming from object to object and find it difficult to focus on just one as I often do.  This gallery with its many perfect bodies does raise questions of body image generally and how we think of ourselves and others.

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