Sunday, May 22, 1955

T HE MIC H IGA N D AI1LY

Page Fifteen'


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mples shown here feature por- temporafy then of the ill-famed it has not been possible to show or
raits-two private and one offi- Nero. discuss here. A visit to one of our
ial. The documentary nature of the major collections will speedily
monument is evident in the identify these.
[T IS INTERESTING to contrast lengthy inscription ordered by the All photographs are reproduced by
the grave monument of Marcus grieving parents, who have not kiod permission of the Directors or
Carienius Venustue, who died at neglected to include their own curators of the collections men-
he age of eight years and ten names and relationship in full. The tioned and their cooperation is
months, with that of the young grave monument of Venustus came gratefully acknowledged.
Athenian girl Myttion discussed a number of years ago from Lans-
arlier. From the hair style of Mar- downe House in Berkeley Square,
us' portrait bust in the niche on London, to the Royal Ontario Mu-
he top of the monument we would seum of Archaeology in Toronto.
ay he lived about 50 A.D., a con-
FINALLY, in the portrait painted
on wax over wood and now in
the Detroit Institute of Arts, we
meet a lady from Roman Egypt
decked out in all her finery. This
'. portrait was painted, probably
late in the second century A.D., to
Sbeplaced on the coffin in which
the body of the deceased was em-
balmed in traditional Egyptian
fashion. Like the many objects in
 the Kelsey Museum, the dry Egyp-
tian soil has preserved many of
these funerary portraits in excel-
lent condition.
It is fitting that this view of an-
cient masterpieces in North Amer- -
Sica should terminate with a paint
edortrait of such a sympathetic, s
almost up-to-date nature for it is
after all in the realm of painting
rather than marble or bronze
sculpture that we tend to measure
the masterpieces of our own age. -
To the ancients sculpture was the
most practiced of the arts, and it
ifrm this medium that most of
our examples'have been selected.
The workings of time have not
ROMAN GRAVE monument left us enough examples of out-
(Marcus Carienius Venestus), standing ancient paintings. PAINTED PORTRAIT of a lady
Royal Ontario Museum of Ar- Ancient art is also to be judged from Roman Egypt, Detroit In-
chaeology, Toronto. by a host of works of types which stitute of Arts.

BRONZE STATUE OF ARTEMIS, GREEK GODDESS OF THE
HUNT, ALBRIGHT ART GALLERY, BUFFALO
Greek perfection. This portrait,
which probably graced the library just having discharged an arrow
of a Roman man of letters, is a from her now-missing bow, are in
copy of a statue of Menander set keeping with later Greek sculptors'
in Athens about 290 B.C. by the interest in breaking from the two-
in A sdimension into the third or circu-
sons of the great fourth century lar-dimensional view in works of
sculptor Praxiteles. This is one of art. This half-lifesize figure was
the best of a great number of rep- probably made by a Greek sculp-
licas of the original statue made in tor working for a Roman patron.
later periods of antiquity. It might be dated about 50 B.C.
Roman art, particularly art of
OUR FINAL Greek masterpiece the Roman Empire, concerns itself
is the statue of Artemis, god- more with a natural view than an
doss of the hunt, recently acquired idealization of humanity. The Ro-
by the Albright Art Gallery in Buf- mans possessed such a strong sense
falo. Artemis is represented as a of government and history that
g.Arl runing hrouh t Roman art always leaned to the
young girl running through the factual or documentary view of
fields and forests, and she is ac- life, although this view could be
companied by a doe, symbolic of cloaked under allegory in the
her interest in wild creatures. Greek tradition. It is quite in keep-
The outstretched arms of the ing with these aspects of Roman
goddess, who might be represented art that the three outstanding ex-



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