The ONASSIS CULTURAL CENTER, NEW YORK is presenting A WORLD OF EMOTIONS: ANCIENT GREECE, 700 BC - 200 AD till June 24.

130  paintings, sculptures vase painting, masks coins have been loaned from museums around the world  including the Acropolis   Louvre, British  and  Vatican MuseumsDr. Anthony Papadimitriou, President of the Onassis Foundation said "we are grateful to our guest curators for the exhibition and revelatory catalogue," whose concept and direction was co-ordinatedby Amalia Cosmetatou, Executive Director of Cultural Affairs, Onassis Foundation USA.
The curators are: Angelos Chaniotis,  Professor of Ancient History and Classics, Institute for
Advanced Study Princeton, Nicholas Kaltsas, National Archaeological Museum, Athens and
Ioannis Mylonopoulos, Columbia University.

 Greek Consul General in New York City, Mr. Konstantinos Koutras hosted a private reception
attended by Mafgorzata Rejek-Radon, Vice Counsel General of the Republic of Poland in New York
 Angelos Chaniotis, gave a private explanatory tour of the exhibit.

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There is a radical change in GREEK art  after 300 BC. Classicism changes. We find emotions are expressed in raw feelings, gestures, expressions exaggerated features starting in the Hellinistic Age,  in the wake of Alexander the Great's conquest.  Art became more naturalistic, expressing EMOTIONS..

In the earliest  Greek plays in the 400'S BC we find  all the emotions:
WRATH  leading to murder is throughout all the Greek tragedies:We find it in 'Prometheus Bound" by Aeschylus, in "Medea" where she murders her children out of jealousy The following is the  murder and death  of Piram

                           AMPHORA WITH THE SCENE OF THE DEATH OF PIRAM 500BC


In 458 BC, we find hatred and love in "THE ORESTIA" BY AESCHYLUS

                     HEAD OF PENTHESILEIA, HEAD OF ARCHILLES CIRCA 200BC
HATRED AND LOVE.  when Archilles realizes he has killed a beautiful women, he falls in love.His right hand is entwined in her hair in a gentle stroking and cupping.  We see the thumb, the pinky and other finger lifting her head, an unusual gesture of tenderness.
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There is also a gentleness and LOVE in a stele for a dead pig.

FUNERARY STELE FOR A LOVABLE PIG, VICTIM OF A TRAFFIC ACCIDENT C200AD
.The pig was accidentally trampled on the way to perform at a fair. The owner had feelings for it.when it died.

GRIEF and PATHOS
In "Antigone" by Sophocles, a  sister mourns for her Brother. Also in a fresco in Pompeii:

                            

                  WALL PAINTING SACRIFICE OF IPHIGENEIA, POMPEII 62AD
MOURNING
In 413 BC  - Euripides wrote " Iphigenia Among the Taurians."  Here Agamenon sacrifices his daughter and grieves in despair and guilt. This sense of mourning appears in "Antigone " by Sophocles as a sister mourns for her dead Brother.  This same emotion is found in a funerary stele:

 

LOVE     FUNERARY STELE A tenderness in the touching showing

 love and affection for a family member.                                                                                                                  .

 

 

FUNERARY STELE

 

 

 LUST   appears in  429BC in "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles

when a son marries his Mother.Sexual exploits are the basis of the play "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes We find lust again in the sculpture "Leda and the Swan""

Zeus has fallen in love with Leda, Queen of Sparta.  He seduces her by turning into a swan, their offspring are Helen of Troy, Castor, and Pollux

  RELIEF WITH THE AMOUROUS EMBRACE OF LEDA  AND THE SWAN 100-200--AD

 

There are many programs affiliated with this show:

LETS WALK.  discussions; FAMILY SUNDAYS, FREE GUIDED TOURS, MUSIC AT BAM,.

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