23.2.2018

“The countless aspects of Beauty” at the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparta

“The countless aspects of Beauty” at the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil in Sparta

An exhibition on “The countless aspects of Beauty” is currently being held at the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil, in Sparta. This is the first station of the National Archaeological Museum’s itinerant exhibition, which will then travel to the Silversmithing Museum in Ioannina (Epirus) and the Museum of Marble Crafts on Tinos belonging to the Museum Network of the Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation (PIOP). This itinerant exhibition has been co-organised by the National Archaeological Museum (NAM) and PIOP with the support of the Municipality of Sparta.

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View of the itinerant exhibition "The countless aspects of the Beauty" (© ΝAM-PIOP, V. Georgiades)

The itinerant exhibition follows the same rationale as the large-scale temporary exhibition of the same title that will be inaugurated in May at the National Archaeological Museum. The exhibition “The countless aspects of Beauty” seeks to record mankind’s constant quest over the centuries to find Beauty and incorporate it into daily life, capturing it in art works, personal toilet articles and utensils of everyday use.

In the context of the two-year collaboration between NAM and PIOP, forty ancient artefacts were selected from among NAM’s Collections dating from prehistoric through to Roman times, many of which are being presented to the public for the first time and which constitute brief comments-references to some of the aspects of Beauty. The criterion of their selection was based on the themes of the PIOP museums that will host the itinerant exhibition. Thus, in Sparta the focus is on the care of the body with oils and perfumes, in Ioannina it is elaborately-crafted jewellery that is centre stage, while in the Tinos museum the focus will be on the marble works of the Cycladic civilisation.

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View of the itinerant exhibition "The countless aspects of the Beauty" (© ΝAM-PIOP, V. Georgiades)

A statuette of the goddess Aphrodite framed by winged Eroses welcomes visitors to the exhibition, who, after touring the modules with the Cycladic figurines, the pieces of jewellery made of gold and the ceramic artefacts, will have the opportunity to discover recipes of the perfume-sellers of Antiquity. A special place is reserved, in the Sparta exhibition, to the Linear B tablet with the ideogram for olive oil, Mycenaean stirrup jars also known as false-necked amphorae, as well as vases depicting the beauty of gods and mortals and destined for the storage of perfumes and aromatic oils.

Special labels in the Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil’s permanent collection contribute to the visitors’ understanding of the conceptual affinity of NAM’s antiquities to the Museum’s permanent exhibits.

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View of the itinerant exhibition "The countless aspects of the Beauty" (© ΝAM-PIOP, V. Georgiades)

 

The ultimate goal of the collaboration between NAM and PIOP is for these exhibitions in the Greek provinces to function as “satellites” of the country’s most important museum, offering local societies the possibility to enjoy milestone works of Ancient Greek civilisation from the National Archaeological Museum’s unique collections.

The itinerant exhibition “The countless aspects of Beauty” is part of the activities for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

The exhibition runs from: 18 February through to 15 April 2018

Museum of the Olive and Greek Olive Oil
Othonos & Amalias 129  -  GR-231 00 Sparta
T: (+30) 27310 89315 |   www.piop.gr