GREEK ART OF THE SIXTH THROUGH FOURTH CENTURIES B.C.:
MARY AND MICHAEL JAHARIS GALLERY
This grand, barrel-vaulted gallery at the center of the installation – formerly used for the display of Cypriot and Roman art – is a 140-foot-long space extending south from The Robert and Renée Belfer Court for Early Greek Art all the way to the Sardis column, and is flanked on each side by three galleries that present a chronological progression of works in all media of the sixth, fifth, and fourth centuries B.C.
With its soaring height, long vista, newly installed limestone walls, and abundant natural illumination from overhead skylights, the grand vaulted gallery becomes a splendid and felicitous environment in which to display large-scale sculpture and large works in other media in accordance with the gallery design’s original intention. Pieces exhibited here are presented more or less chronologically and in close relationship to the art shown in the adjacent galleries. Works of the sixth century include the Museum’s distinguished collection of Panathenaic amphorae, large vases of conventional shape and decoration that were once filled with olive oil and presented as prizes to victors in contests held during the Panathenaic festival, which honored Athena, patron goddess of Athens.
The central section of the gallery is devoted to large-scale marble copies – made during the Roman period – of bronze statues that were created in Greece during the fifth and fourth centuries but were lost or melted down over time. A wounded Amazon and a statue of the Greek hero Protesilaos (the first Greek to set foot on the shore of Troy during the Trojan War) are among the finest over-life-sized sculptures that dominate this space. An area devoted to the works of the fourth century B.C. features two marble statues of draped women as well as an over-life-sized head of a youthful goddess. Towering above them are large marble foliate sculptures that once crowned tall Athenian grave monuments.
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