GREEK ART OF THE FOURTH CENTURY B.C.:
SPYROS AND EURYDICE COSTOPOULOS GALLERY
Although the political power of Athens was diminished during the fourth century B.C., the city remained a center of artistic excellence. The Gallery for Greek Art of the Fourth Century B.C. includes Athenian grave monuments of this period that became more and more elaborate over the years. One pair of fully three-dimensional figures of young girls that stood over a tomb conveys the graceful charm that marked the work of the Athenian sculptor Praxiteles, who was famous throughout antiquity for having carved the first nude statue of Aphrodite. Other stone funerary monuments took the form of vessels commonly used to hold oil or water during funerary rites. Four such colossal, three-dimensional marble vessels decorated with low reliefs stand at the center of the gallery.
Several cases in this gallery display terracotta statuettes that represent fashionable women or girls. These statuettes were first made in Athens during the second half of the fourth century B.C., but are known today as "Tanagra figurines" since great numbers were found during the late 19th century at the site of the ancient city of Tanagra in Boeotia, north of Attica. These terracottas, most of which have not been on view in many years, are still prized today for their naturalness, vitality, and charm.
By the mid-fourth century the Macedonians to the north of Greece had risen to power and by the third quarter of a century Alexander the Great undertook invasions of Asia Minor in order to conquer the Persian Empire. Large bronze vases decorated with reliefs, elaborate bronze mirrors, silver and glass vessels, and gold jewelry of a type found in the rich Macedonian tombs are displayed in this gallery. A superb set of jewelry found in Macedonia includes an exceptional pair of earrings with tiny figures of Zeus in the form of an eagle abducting the young Trojan prince, Ganymede, and carrying him through the air to Mount Olympos, home of the gods. This gallery presents the wealth of the Classical Greek world on the eve of the Hellenistic period that flourished after the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C.
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