Art of Ancient Greece and Rome

The room features plaster casts of the artistic monuments created in the late Classic and Hellenic period, as well as in Ancient Rome. Several stands in the room exhibit classic Athenian tomb stones, small plastic works from Ancient Rome, and Roman paintings.

The room is divided into three zones, and the first of them (to the left and to the right from the entrance) is dedicated to attic steles. The memorial art of Attic is a unique phenomenon. It can even be considered a separate genre that embraced all achievement of Hellenic wisdom, sensitivity, and craft. The images on the tomb steles develop several motives: a warrior (stele of Dexileus to the left) and a hero (stele from Ilissus near the left wall from the entrance), a farewell scene (to the left), a mistress and her maid (stele of Phrasikleia to the left). A master is focused on spiritual experience of his characters, but is not completely overwhelmed by them. Everything is depicted in undertones.

The central part of the room is given to Hellenic sculpture. Several items that have preserved until today in Roman copies or remakes are still associated with the name of Praxiteles. The sculptor continues to develop a monumental image of a God-like athlete, but fills it with a new meaning. All statues of Aphrodite located in the rooms are also connected with Praxiteles and his work.

The exhibition describes two main directions of the Roman art (as featured in the last part of the room). One of them is connected with copying and reproducing Greek art. Genuine Roman art that differs from that of Hellas is mainly represented by portraits (on the left). Roman portraits are far from being abstract images. They show resemblance with the models not only in the appearance, but also in the character. Roman artists were capable of looking deep into a person's soul, and that is how this unparalleled gallery of images from the past was created.

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