Friday, 4. 3. 2011

Ancient greeks

An outstanding visiting exhibition entitled "Ancient Greeks in Croatia" is on display at Ljubljana City Museum until 30 May 2011.

The exhibition, which explores the Greeks' first contacts with the east coast of the Adriatic and its subsequent colonisation, has come about as part of international co-operation between the Zagreb gallery Klovićevi dvori, the Croatian Restoration Institute, the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia – Restoration Centre and the Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana under the patronage of the Slovenian and Croatian Ministries of Culture and the City of Ljubljana.

266 exceptional exhibits

The exhibition is the result of more than two years of work by a team of Croatian experts from the Klovićevi dvori gallery. The exhibited artefacts (266 artefacts are on display in Ljubljana) are the most beautiful and most important objects from the period of the 12th to the 1st century BC, collected from 33 Croatian museums, institutions and private collections (Split, Vis, Hvar, Pula, and others). Among the exhibits is a statue of the Croatian Apoxyomenos, a young athlete who is cleaning himself with a special scraper after training. The statue, one of eight known specimens in the world, was accidently discovered in 1998 by a tourist diver southeast of the island of Lošinj, and apart from having been exhibited in Florence, is on display for the first time outside Croatia.

Life, maritime affairs and death, art, religion and myths

The first part of the Ancient Greeks in Croatia exhibition is set out chronologically. To begin with, a large map of the Greek colonisation informs visitors where the Greeks set out from, what their route was and how large an area they occupied. The Greeks colonised the Adriatic coast in the so-called second wave of colonisation from the 4th century BC onwards.

The introductory part displays maritime-related objects: amphorae, ships’ anchors, cooking cauldrons and so on. The second part of the exhibition showcases the period before the Greek colonisation of the Adriatic coast, when Greek objects came to the Adriatic coast as gifts or merchandise. The next part is devoted to the colonisation of the Dalmatian islands of Vis, Korčula and Hvar. The exhibition's final part is thematic. This part is dedicated to the afterlife: finds from burial grounds and tombstones with Greek inscriptions. Visitors are also able to view finds associated with mythology, religion and art. The latter highlights a portrait of the goddess Artemis from the 4th century BC, found on the island of Vis.

In a separate room on the floor above, the most valuable object in the exhibition can be seen, a life-size bronze statue of the Apoxyomenos. The accompanying exhibition reveals all about its discovery, analysis, research and restoration.

A special 'mouse corner' has been prepared for the youngest visitors (the remains of a nest belonging to rodents, probably mice, was in fact discovered in Apoxyomenos’ left forearm; these had set up home in the statue around 20 BC).

From the treasury of the Ljubljana City Museum: a Greek scarab from Vrhnika

Alongside the Ancient Greeks in Croatia exhibition, in the treasury of the City Museum of Ljubljana and within the context of the Faces of Ljubljana permanent exhibition, an important artefact from Vrhnika is on display – this is a scarab, made in Greek workshops during the 1st or 2nd century AD. It is the first such artefact to have been found on Slovenian territory.

More about the exhibition and the rich accompanying programme can be found at the website of Ljubljana City Museum and Galleries.