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Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul
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Portrait, probably of the Gymnasiarch Strato, first half of the 2nd century B.C.
Afghanistan, Aï Khanum
Gilded silver, limestone; H. 30 3/8 in. (77 cm)
National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul, 05.42.14
Photo: © Musée Guimet
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Similar to any other ancient Greek city, Aï Khanum had a theater and a gymnasium devoted to the intellectual and physical training of its youth. The "hermaic pillar," a typical Greek monument, comes from the gymnasium, and the bust shown here probably represents a master of the school. This lively and sensitive portrait perfectly depicts a sage teaching the moral values and the ideal virtues of the Greek man in this remote colony, where the legacy of Hellenistic culture endured for centuries and influenced the arts of Central Asia until the Islamic conquest.
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