'Images of Women from the Classical World' Exhibit in Houston Features Objects from the Gilbert Collection

The recently opened exhibition From Myth to Life: Images of Women from the Classical Word focuses on varied depictions of women of antiquity. The 44 ancient Greek, Roman, Etruscan, and Phoenician objects were especially chosen from the Celia and Walter Gilbert Collection for their representation of women or for their use by women in the classical world. The vases, statuettes, jewelry, and household objects, which range in style, origin, and age, are on view until July 31 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) in the Alice Pratt Gallery and Garden of the Caroline Weiss Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street.

Chronicling the development and transition of women in antiquity, the objects in the exhibition span 1,500 years, from Bronze Age Greece to Imperial Rome. They are the products of Etruscan and Phoenician, as well as Greek and Roman, manufacture. Of the various cultures represented, however, it is Greece that predominates, with vases, terracotta figurines, and metalwork from Greek sites of South Italy and Sicily as well as from the powerful mainland cities of Corinth and Athens.

The representations of the female form range from romantic, to powerful, to iconic; from terracotta figurines of elegant simplicity to intricately carved gold ornaments, from the timeless silhouette of a woman´s head on an archaic perfume bottle to a complex narrative scene showing one woman´s place at the center of her family, as tragedy strikes. Idolized bronze statuettes depict the female form and numerous goddesses, including a winged Victory, a crowned Nemesis, and Isis-Fortuna. A terracotta statuette depicts a little girl dressed and dancing like a bear — presumably she is a follower of Artemis, goddess of wild beasts and the hunt. The collectors, Celia and Walter Gilbert describe their experiences with art in this way, "Holding a paper-thin vase from antiquity gave us the intoxicating feeling of reaching backwards through time to encounter those complex and ambitious men and women of the ancient world."