Famous Artworks at the Museum of Fine Arts of St. Pete

I’ve decided to focus on the great artworks that are display at the Museum of Fine Arts of St. Pete on September 8, 2018. Walking through the galleries, and observing each piece, deciding which to focus my attention, I realized that each piece had its own unique and distinguish forms. It was perfectly organized from corner to corner, each with single piece to a set of collection. Yet, I never really understood where and why these pieces of work was so important. But once I became familiarized with its historical features, I was fascinated.
The exhibit did seem to have a particular theme, it was concentrated particularly on the Ancient Roman Greeks. There were a few potteries from the Roman-Greeks Imperial era, while the rest were focus on the Roman-Greeks sculpture of goddesses. The moment I went inside the room, I was enchanted. It took me to a part of time, in where woman in the ancient Greeks era had culturized there civilization and become known more as women, then simple model of sculpture for Greeks.
I tried to imagine what these women were like, how phenomenon they were to the subject of art, particularly sculptures. I was very impressed with a particular Greeks sculpture in the Bishop-Randall Gallery. I realized at that moment, this is a perfect representation of what I have been looking for in the spare of many other artwork.

They have named it the Head of Athena from ca. AD 120, by an unidentifiable sculptor, whose modeled after the Greek original. A larger, more elaborated helmet, perhaps of bronze, may have fitted atop the rounded upper surface, where the marble has been less finely finished, before exhibiting off to the world. Athena’s attributes were the spear, the helmet, and the Aegis (a goatskin shield). She attached the Gorgon’s head which Perseus had given her to her shield, and this turned to stone every living thing that looked at it. This piece was created during the Greco-Roman Imperial, a goddess war of claim civilization and recognized of Athena’s creators.
The Ancient Word, of the Bishop-Randall Gallery is formed by a permanent collection, and throughout the entire piece of the collection, it has been placed in this particular museum for quite some time. The exact date of when it was first displayed is unknown, as well as some of the rest of the Greco-Roman pieces of artworks in this particular gallery. Art of the Ancient World was home to one of the world’s premiere encyclopedic collections of antiquities.
In the perspective eye, the way the facial volume of the cheek is flat, was interesting as it would have been different from a real human being. But it’s biomorphic shape is entity to one of a human body, more so of the head. Looking closely, the white marble form does not stand out entirely from the background, like many other piece of sculptural heads. This object contains a lucrative measurable volume behind and in front of the cheekbones, contrasting other replicas of the goddesses. The Ancient World focuses its pieces of work to the legendary Greeks Imperial, sharing its creation with the Romans, as a symbol of tranquility between the two, a pact of claiming its origin was issued for and against their own civilization.
As I walked into the abstracting levels of the gallery, I noticed the well cared and careful dedication that this place had for the artworks, almost all the sculptures were cased by cubical glass. The lightning of the small quadrant were soft, not bright like most places, and not dark enough that will obscure its visitors from decrying at all the details of a fine work. In most cases, the brightness of a room will complement the color of the artwork.
The Head of Athena is shallow white, but not enough to reflect the bright light of the room, and besides that, what made the artwork stand, is the covering of the windows. In that section, there are flat curtains that blocked the sunlight from penetrating inside. Besides museums purposes, I think it balances the illumination of the sculpture itself. This can be view as a way to understand the work more. Because the greater the amount of light reflected, the lighter the surface and the artistic work it will be.
This exhibit contained some of the most interesting and important pieces of the Greeks and Roman work, in which was made out of mostly bronze and marble. The glass cases that contained the bronze work, including heads of the famous goddesses or empress, set the stage for the sequence of marbles that follow. I noticed how each of the Greeks goddesses had marbles around its surface and deeply imprinted within the clay of the sculpture. These marvelous goddesses are the representational approach of Classical artists and to the human form. The statues in the gallery embody the idealized beauty for which Greeks and Roman art is known.
This piece of artwork could be well defined as an Expressionistic type of art. Just as the many types of creation of the sculpture of David, over the centuries, we have seen many creations and myths of it’s origin. I think the Head of Athena is the continuation of many deceptions for sculptors and public followers in Greece, as well as Rome, who subsides with their knowledge, that in fact this piece of artwork was part of their territory. Because, who knows if this is truth.
The depiction of the marble brings me such curiosity, the clay that was used as a plate of protection of the whole facial of the work. Certainly, the sculptor knew where the circular of the cheeks began, and the way crown of the head was formulated. But when I looked at it through an angle, the shape changed to appear a cubicle, then, when I stood in front of it, one can see that there is nothing cubicle about it. The artist seem to create an illusion with all the mold and perfected it to its purpose, to look exactly as the actual persephone Greeks goddess in the A.D century.
The visual elements hold sway this work by the set to use in facial composition. In the classical style, the shape configures to one of a human face. Positive shape of this work, for example, reminds me of a marble foyer, from the ancient Greeks of Alexander the Great. What impresses me is the invisible line that blends between the crown of the head in this particular sculpture.
From the naked eye, it is undetectable, but when you take your time to observe every inch and each detail, you can see the line that guides the tilt of the crown. This feature tells me of the great power and influence a goddess, because the position of the chin; such like Athena obtain during an imperial time. As if the ruler of the Greeks were women like her, and not worriers like man, who sought themselves of the greatest.
Athena is proclaimed as a historical piece of art, representational of the Roman-Greco period, she is identified as the goddess of wisdom, war, and craft. She is to belief to be the patron of Athens. The Greco-Roman world, at the start of the 1st century CE, was polytheistic. People believed in a large variety of gods and goddesses, and they worshipped at various levels. Polytheistic religions, have many rights intended to accomplish this.
Based on this, this type religious goal became known as propitiation and it is what makes Greco-Roman different from the currently-dominant religions. While many Greco-Roman worship practices, whose power existed on a cosmic scale, in their minds the world was full of many types of lesser spirits. Although in the sense, the word propitiation did not exist in ancient times, most people had a some deities which they connected with their own nation. In the minds of Romans alone, they were connected with those intimately, and were part of the workings of the world.
In conclusion, I chose this particular exhibit and artwork, because it intrigued me to learn about what held the Romans and the Greeks together for so long, before they separated. In the past, I have learned bits of their histories at school, but nothing comparative, as fighting for pieces of art works. When I went to the museum, at first I thought they are simple pieces of portraits, sculptures; but then, I was relentless to learn more of everything that had to do with the era of the Greeks.
I became astonished at the classical overtones, and what represented the greatest pieces of all time history, during the reign of the Roman-Greco era. This exhibit was a passive time that I enjoyed, because I was well informed and truly learned. Though it was my first time going to a museum, I was surprised at how quick I was able to find what I was looking for. And it felt like an adventure to asks questions and read the historical biographies of each piece of artwork.
I had to ask permission to be able to take a few pictures, and was thankful that they allowed me, it helped me understand it a bit more. I felt that I now have a better understanding of the cultural significance of both sides of the Roman and the Greeks, and what important it was for them to create masterpieces, such like the Head of Athena, which I learned so much. It made me think of what was to live in that pivotal moment, where they discover simple creations and transformed it to the greatest creations of all time.
And after this experience, I would love to revisit it more often, and continue to learn more, besides the Romans and the Greeks. Because arts such as these, are more than a rock to look at, but to actually learn from them is to obtain some type of common knowledge.