Volume 39, Number 21 · December 17, 1992
Athena's Magic
By Garry Wills
The Greek Miracle: Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy, The Fifth Century BC November 22, 1992–February 7, 1993; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York March 11–May 23, 1993
an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
The Greek Miracle: Classical Sculpture from the Dawn of Democracy, The Fifth Century BC
catalog of the exhibition, edited by Diana Buitron-Oliver
National Gallery of Art/distributed by Abrams, 164 pp., $25.00 (paper)
The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes 1992–January 3, 1993
an exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago October 10,
The Ancient Americas: Art from Sacred Landscapes
catalog of the exhibition, edited by Richard F. Townsend
Te Neus/Prestel Verlag, 416 pp., $60.00
Talismans and Trojan Horses: Guardian Statues in Ancient Greek Myth and Ritual
by Christopher A. Faraone
Oxford University Press, 193 pp., $35.00
We are rightly advised not to look gift horses in the mouth. That principle is undeniable when the horse is a delicately paced little bronze horse from fifth-century Olympia, its mane ornately worked as becomes a victor, its bit and bridle intricately cast to show that it is the left trace-horse of a four-horse chariot team. This is the surviving part of a votive offering for winning the chariot race in the Olympic Games. It stands in the National Gallery's new show (scheduled to come to the Metropolitan Museum in New York on March 11) next to a two-and-a-half-ton panel from the Parthenon frieze showing similarly perky horses being ridden in the Panathenaic festival. These Parthenon steeds look as if they have been shrunk to the demands of the frieze, and they are certainly too small in proportion to the riders; but the bronze horse, which reflects great anatomical study, proves that the physical structure of Greek horses was different from that of modern thoroughbreds. To our eyes they look more like ponies. This juxtaposition is an example of the care with which these Greek treasures have been chosen and arranged. These are gift horses, and any excuse for getting them here is worth endorsing.
Review, 4836 words
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