The Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities

The Museum of Art History in Vienna:
Masterpieces in the Collection of
Greek and Roman Antiquities

The Museum of Art History in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien) is one of the largest and most important institutions of its kind. The holdings are divided into five collections:

* The Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection
* The Greek and Roman Collection
* The Chamber of Art
* Paintings
* Coins and Medallions

A general introduction to the museum and all its collections was published (in several languages) in 2007. Here is a link to the English edition: Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna.

Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities was first was published in 2005 to mark the re-opening of the collection following a re-organisation of the display. A second slightly amended edition appeared in 2012.

The book is edited by Sabine Haag, Director General of the Museum of Art History. The presentations of the ancient objects are written by four Austrian scholars who are conservators at the museum:  

* Alfred Bernhard-Walcher

* Kurt Gschwantler

* Manuela Lauenberger

* Karoline Zhuber-Okrog

The book begins with a preface by Sabine Haag (pp. 9-13). This is followed by a brief history of the Greek and Roman collection by Kurt Gschwantler (pp. 14-23). The main part of the book is the catalogue where 114 ancient objects are presented. Each object gets two pages: On the left side there is a text, on the right side a colour photo. This means you can compare the text and the photo of each item without turning the pages; a very user-friendly layout. At the end of the book there are three appendices:

(1) Bibliography

(2) Index of Inventory and Catalogue Numbers

(3) Index of Catalogue Numbers and Exhibition Spaces

For obvious reasons I can only mention a few examples of the 114 objects presented in this book:

# 8 Head of Aristotle – a Roman copy of a Greek original from ca. 320 BC. Made of marble.

# 12 Statuette of Asclepius – a Roman copy of a Greek original from ca. 340 BC. Made of marble.

# 15 Sarcophagus with fighting Amazons – Greek, classical, ca. 320 BC. From Solo on Cyprus.

# 21 Head of Jupiter – Roman, from the first century AD. Made of Bronze.

# 24 Mask Relief – Roman, from the first half of the second century AD. Made of marble.

# 25 Sarcophagus of the Muses – Roman, AD 180-200. Made of marble.

# 27 Mithras Relief or Mithras Killing the Bull - Roman, from the second half of the second century AD. From Monastero in Italy. Made of marble.

# 36 Ribbon-Handle Amphora: Sileni and Maenads – Greek, Attic, black-figure, ca. 530 BC. From Caere (Cerveteri) in Italy.

# 43 Pelike: Oedipus and the Sphinx – Greek, Attic, red-figure, 470-460 BC. From Caere (Cerveteri) in Italy. A picture of this object is placed on the back cover of the book, which seems to indicate that it is considered the second-most important item in the whole collection.

# 45 Volute Krater: Achilleus and Penthesilea – Greek, Apulian, red-figure, from the second quarter of the fourth century BC.

# 59 Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus – Roman-Republican, 186 BC. From Tiriolo (Calabria) in Italy. Made of bronze.

# 63 Emperor Augustus – Roman, early first century AD. Made of marble. Augustus ruled the Roman Empire from 27 BC to AD 14.

# 65 Emperor Trajan – Roman, ca. AD 108. From Salona (Solin) in Croatia. Made of marble. Trajan ruled the Roman Empire 98-117.

# 66 Bust of a Boy – Roman, first quarter of the second century AD. Made of marble.

# 75 Gemma Augustea – Roman, AD 9-12. Double-layered sardonyx. A picture of this object is placed on the front cover of the book, which seems to indicate that it is considered the most important item in the whole collection.

# 85 Mosaic from Centocelle – Roman, from the second century AD. From Centocelle near Rome in Italy. Dimensions: 39.7 x 38.6 cm.

# 93 Theseus Mosaic – Roman, from the fourth century AD. From the Loigerfelder near Salzburg in Austria. Dimensions: 410 x 420 cm.

# 97 Tombstone of Titus Calidius Severus – Roman, from the first century AD. From Carnuntum (Bad Deutsch-Altenburg) in Austria.

The Museum of Art History is a world-class museum. Obviously, there is much more to see in the museum than you can see in this book. There are more than a thousand objects in the Greek and Roman collection, and only 114 of them are presented here. But the book is a great introduction to the collection. You may use it to prepare a visit to the museum. After a visit the book will be a valuable souvenir.

 

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Sabine Haag,

Masterpieces in the Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities:

A Brief Guide to the Kunsthistorisches Museum,

KHM: Vienna, 2012, 271 pages

 

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