Face to Face and Eye to Eye

I am a new docent at the Michael Carlos Museum at Emory in Atlanta and will give my first tour this Thursday.  I want you to step into my time machine and travel through time and look into the faces of the past.

From Carlos Museum

Our first stop will be to look into the eyes of Tiberius, the second emperor of Rome, step-son of Augustus and son of the forceful Livia.  He ruled Rome from 14-37AD.  During this time he reformed the government, abolished Egyptian and Jewish "cults", crushed all city riots, abolished the right of sanctuary and ruled while Jesus Christ was tried and crucified under Roman rule.  He became so paranoid that he sought self-exile on the Isle of Capri. Do you think this is what he really looked like?  Do you think George Washington really looked like the face on the dollar bill?  This is what we know as the Classical Style.

Krater Sack of Troy

Our next stop is the Krater (wine vessel) Iliupersis or Sack of Troy thought to be painted by the Baltimore painter.  This vessel is illustrated with scenes from a lost poem that describes Helen and Cassandra seeking sanctuary in Athena's temple.  Notice the body language of Menelaus and Ajax as they confront the two woman. How do their gestures show their feelings? Look into the eyes of Helen and Cassandra and see how the brilliant artist has shown Cassandra's fear and Helen's seduction.  How in the world did this piece survive 2,000+ years?  It's beauty like that of Helen enabled it to become immortal.

Medusa

Next let's visit another woman known not for her beauty but her ability to instill fear. Medusa, a gorgon sister who was a combination of beauty and terror, sorta reminds me of Angelina Jolie.  She angered the gods (really goddesses) and was turned from a beauty into a snake-haired monster who could turn anyone who looked her in the eye into stone.  Now be careful looking at her.  Perseus killed her by cutting off her head by looking at her reflection in his shield.  This staring head was used on entryways, gates, and public buildings to protect and induce terror in people entering.  Is superstition the best security system?

Tankhtnettahat from Carlos Collection

Let's now enter the Egyptian Gallery and visit with Tankhtnettahat.  She was a chantress in the Temple of Amun at Karnak.  Her painted coffin and mummy board are some of the best examples in the world.  But as you look in the many painted faces of Lady Tahat do you see the lifeless expression that would make you sad even if you did not know the context of the painting?  She was highly regarded in her own time and given a noble burial for she "woke the gods in the morning and sang them to sleep at night."

West Mexico,  Carlos Museum

But the obsession with death and the dead was not just in Egypt but was also a focus of the cultures in Ancient America. Next let's look at a set of sculptures of a seated man and woman that are contemporaries of the classical art of Greek and Rome.  These effigies were buried in graves in a vertical 50 foot deep shaft that was then filled with rubble and sealed with stone doors.  Interestingly behind the doors stood statues signaling the universal stop signal of hand raised palm up.  They don't face the entryway but toward the dead!  This couple was buried at the same time - I wonder if they died at the same time. Look at their faces... did love out last death?

Dying Masks, Costa Rico, Carlos Museum

Our last face from the past is a pair of very rare Dying Mask set from Costa Rica.  They date from 1-500AD the same time as the Roman Empire.  There was a dual burial ritual where the body was buried in a shallow grave until it was reduced to bones and then reburied for at final time.  The time between  - liminal - the body is neither living or dead or as they said in the Princess Bride, "mostly dead".  The masks are anatomically correct and show the characteristics of decomposition- sunken eyes, gas bloated lips,and even collapsing cartilage.  What effect does this obsession with death have on a culture? If death is overly valued, is life undervalued?

As we leave the galleries of our museum... look at all the faces of the past spying out at you.  How would you want to join them and be remembered 2,000 years from now? And remember to come see us in person at the Carlos Museum Atlanta's best kept secret.