DESCRIPTION
HISTORY
EXHIBITIONS
INFORMATION
PHOTOGALLERY
 
 
 
Exhibitions
| Description | | Exhibits |

The Sculpture Collection
 
Diadoumenos
The Sculpture Collection of the National Archaeological Museum is considered to be one of the most important in the world. The main aim of the display is to present the development of Greek sculpture from the origins of large-scale sculpture (seventh century BC) to the Late Roman period (fourth century AD). The exhibits are unique works of art from mainland Greece and the Aegean islands: statues, reliefs (funerary, votive, and legal), architectural groups, sarcophagi, busts, altars, statues of animals, Hermaic stelai and others (sirens, sphinxes etc). Several vases and bronze figurines complete the display; these help to explain the development of ancient Greek art and enable the visitor to fully appreciate the various periods and styles through a variety of artefacts.

The display, which occupies about 4,000 square metres on the building's ground floor (Rooms 7-34), is set out in chronological order to illustrate the development of sculpture from with the first, austere and conventional shapes of the Archa?c period to the realistic, dramatic figures of the Hellenistic period. It concludes with the personalized rendering of facial features in Roman portraiture. Within this chronological framework, many of the sculptures are also grouped by type and category (Archa?c and Classical funerary monuments, Archa?c kouroi, votive sculptures from Attic sanctuaries and Roman emperors), while special rooms are dedicated to Classical funerary, votive and legal reliefs, and to the monumental architectural groups of the temples of Aphaia at Aigina, Hera at Argos, and Asklepios at Epidaurus.

Recently, special emphasis has been given to the display of some relatively new important acquisitions, such as the Frasikleia kore and the Aristodikos kouros, while a new sense of space around each sculpture was created by their repositioning.

Explanatory texts, maps and photographs complete the display and provide the visitor with accurate and comprehensive information on the sculptures, as well as basic information on the historical and social framework which gave birth to the art of large-scale sculpture. The new display adheres to current museological attitudes and practices, which promote the museum's educational role by presenting works of art within their historical context.
  
 
Author
Eleni Kourinou, archaeologist
  
 

Exhibition Units
 
- Daedalic sculpture (Room 7)
This unit comprises statues and architectural sculptures of the so-called 'Daedalic Style', the precursor of Archa?c art. It includes the reliefs from the temple of Athena at Mycenae and the best-known Daedalic sculpture: the female statue of Nikandre from Delos.
- Archa?c sculpture (Rooms 8-13)
This unit comprises among other exhibits a uniquely rich series of kouroi from Attica, Boiotia, the islands, and other parts of Greece, including two remarkable statues, the early large Sounion kouros and Aristodikos, chronologicaly the last kouros of the series. Several korai, including the recently acquired intact Phrasikleia kore, funerary reliefs, such as the Hoplitodromos, and architectural sculptures complete the display.
- Classical sculpture (Rooms 14-28, 34)
This large display follows both a chronological and typological order. It comprises works of the Severe Style, which typifies the first decades of the Classical period, the architectural sculptures from the temple of Aphaia at Aigina, funerary monuments, such at the stelai of Hegeso and Aristonautes, votive and legal reliefs, such as the Eleusinian relief, copies of sculptures by Pheidias, and architectural groups from the Heraion at Argos and the Asklepeion at Epidaurus. Finally, this unit displays representative works by famous Greek sculptors of the Late Classical period.
- Hellenistic sculpture (Rooms 29-30)
The works of important workshops of the Hellenistic period from mainland Greece, the Aegean islands and Asia Minor, are presented here. The exhibits, which cover a time span of about three centuries, include statues and reliefs with a remarkable sense of realism and movement. Outstanding are the colossal statues from Lykosoura in Arkadia, the Poseidon of Melos and the picturesque group of Aphrodite, Pan and Eros from Delos.
- Roman sculpture (Rooms 31-33)
Statues, stelai, relief and sarcophagoi dating from the second century BC to the period of Theodosius the Great are exhibited here. Remarkable are the imposing portraits of Roman emperors and the finds from the Gymnasium of Diogenes in Athens.
 
 

Open:
Winter: From the 1st of November until the 31 of March 2010:
8:30-15:00