12-30-2006, 10:56 PM
Paris offers many delights to the visitor, and at the moment, there are three more:
First, "Les Perses Sassanides. Fastes d'un Empire Oublié", which is in the Musée Cernuschi at the Avenue Velasquez 7. The objects are from several museums all over the world, although -unfortunately- those from the Hermitage never arrived in Paris, so that buying the expensive catalogue (45 euro) is to be recommended.
After a small anteroom with some written information on Sassanid history, the first room contains all kinds of objects from the royal propaganda, like dishes with hunting scenes and full-scale copies of the rock reliefs from Taq-e Bostan, which I hope will one day be exposed near the original ones, which can not be studied from so close. In the second room you will see a/o cameos and terracottas, and in the third room you will see the Louvre mosaics from Bishapur, and weapons. The objects I liked best were the royal mantles. I had never realized that ancient clothing could survive so well.
This exposition is certainly worth a visit, but it must be noted that taking photos is not allowed. I sincerely regret this, because I like to study objects later, at my leisure. When I offered to pay for an authorization -which is possible in nearly every museum- the kind young lady at the entrance made a phone call to her superior, but she had to inform us that she could not obtain what I needed. This is problematic, because buying a catalogue is not a substitute for taking pictures: the details you want to see again are never the details selected by professional photographers. I will return to this point below.
[size=150:3pmhhv9s]2.[/size]
It is easy to walk from the Sassanid exhibition to the next one, "L'Or des Thraces" at the Musée Jacquemart-André (Boulevard Hausmann 158). Its claim to "illustrate the great Thracian civilization", is simply incorrect. As one could have expected from an exposition called "Gold of the Thracians", this is in fact an exhibition of artworks from tombs in Bulgaria – nothing more or less. I was certainly impressed by the splendor of the treasures, but all this can only be about "the great Thracian civilization" if one is willing to reduce "civilization" to "art". Simple questions like "who were the goldsmiths?", "what are our sources for orphism?", or "is Herodotus a reliable author?" remain unanswered.
Some objects worthy of note: the Borovo treasure, from the territory of the Bessi, consists of several lovely rhytons, and was apparently a gift by king Cotys I to a local chief. The main item from the Letnitsa treasure is a horse harness consisting of small, decorated pieces. There were also objects related to the Odryssean king Seuthes III, which were excavated in the Valley of the Thracian Kings (where systematic excavations started in 2004), such as splendid helmets and the king's gold crown.
What I like best was the Rogozen treasure, which consists of no less than 164 pieces and is usually on display in the Museum of Vratsa. The phials, jugs, and goblets represent art styles from the mid-fifth to mid-fourth century. They were buried in a hurry, and probably were the complete treasure of one noble family that lost power to Philip of Macedon. Among the objects are representations that are surprisingly similar to the lion/bull-fight so well-known from Achaemenid art. I would have loved to learn more about this.
Like so many museums, the Jacquemart-André has decided to expose the objects in dark rooms, in which only the objects are illuminated. This creates a problem: because most information is offered in small booklets, there are always people reading in front of the displays. Worse, the rooms are too small for the many visitors, and it is impossible to study the objects at one's leisure. I left the museum dissatisfied, although I was very happy that the friendly guards allowed us to take photos for personal use.
[size=150:3pmhhv9s]3.[/size]
It is about half an hour from the Musée Jacquemart-André to the Musée Guimet on the Place de Jena (metro Jena). The exhibition "Afghanistan, les Trésors Retrouvés" has received much publicity and you see leaflets everywhere in Paris. And rightly so, because the Musée Guimet offers probably an unique chance to see the objects from the poor country to those of us who can not visit the Archaeological Museum of Kabul.
The first room is devoted to the objects from Aï Khanum, starting with the famous Cybele dish. You will also see a gargoyle, a capital, the Clearchus inscription (smaller than I expected), the sun dial, antefixes, and other objects you have until now only been able to read about. There's also a column from Herat. The second room contains lots of gold objects from Tillia Tepe, and the third room is devoted to Begram (Alexandria in the Caucasus). I was surprised to see how delicate the objects from this last site were.
It is obvious that the Museum Guimet is overreaching itself with this exhibition, which attracts so many people that it is no longer possible to study the objects. If you can reach them at all, because you will first have to join a queue at the Place de Jena, which lasted (when we were there) for about 40 minutes. Then, we could buy a ticket, and learned that the next queue, to enter the exhibition room, would take about 30 to 120 minutes; it was impossible to buy tickets for the next day. After some time in the second line, we could enter the first room, but there was a third queue (45 minutes) to see the gold objects.
Unlike my companion, I do not think that my hours in the museum were a waste of time: I saw objects any student of the ancient world simply must see. However, neither of us enjoyed our visit to the Museum Guimet.
Another unpleasant surprise was that taking pictures was allowed in the first room only, a rule with which the guards apparently did not feel very comfortable, because the lady who addressed us in the Begram room allowed us to finish a photo first, before she explained that there were unsolved copyright issues with the Kabul Museum. (Go here for photos from Tillia Tepe by someone who had more luck than we had.)
There is something wrong here. I understand that the Afghan archaeologists need money and want to guard their copyright, but the museum ticket already contains one euro for the reconstruction of the Museum of Kabul. It would have been better to double this sum and allow people to take pictures. Financial matters can never be an excuse for museums to disregard their first and foremost task: to enable visitors to see and study objects. A museum that does not allow this, and instead obstructs study, has something to explain.
- * an exhibition of Thracian gold from recent excavations in Bulgaria,
* an exposition of Sassanid art,
* and –best of all– an exhibition of objects from the Afghan National Museum in Kabul, which were believed to be lost but miraculously survived the difficult years of war.
First, "Les Perses Sassanides. Fastes d'un Empire Oublié", which is in the Musée Cernuschi at the Avenue Velasquez 7. The objects are from several museums all over the world, although -unfortunately- those from the Hermitage never arrived in Paris, so that buying the expensive catalogue (45 euro) is to be recommended.
After a small anteroom with some written information on Sassanid history, the first room contains all kinds of objects from the royal propaganda, like dishes with hunting scenes and full-scale copies of the rock reliefs from Taq-e Bostan, which I hope will one day be exposed near the original ones, which can not be studied from so close. In the second room you will see a/o cameos and terracottas, and in the third room you will see the Louvre mosaics from Bishapur, and weapons. The objects I liked best were the royal mantles. I had never realized that ancient clothing could survive so well.
This exposition is certainly worth a visit, but it must be noted that taking photos is not allowed. I sincerely regret this, because I like to study objects later, at my leisure. When I offered to pay for an authorization -which is possible in nearly every museum- the kind young lady at the entrance made a phone call to her superior, but she had to inform us that she could not obtain what I needed. This is problematic, because buying a catalogue is not a substitute for taking pictures: the details you want to see again are never the details selected by professional photographers. I will return to this point below.
[size=150:3pmhhv9s]2.[/size]
It is easy to walk from the Sassanid exhibition to the next one, "L'Or des Thraces" at the Musée Jacquemart-André (Boulevard Hausmann 158). Its claim to "illustrate the great Thracian civilization", is simply incorrect. As one could have expected from an exposition called "Gold of the Thracians", this is in fact an exhibition of artworks from tombs in Bulgaria – nothing more or less. I was certainly impressed by the splendor of the treasures, but all this can only be about "the great Thracian civilization" if one is willing to reduce "civilization" to "art". Simple questions like "who were the goldsmiths?", "what are our sources for orphism?", or "is Herodotus a reliable author?" remain unanswered.
Some objects worthy of note: the Borovo treasure, from the territory of the Bessi, consists of several lovely rhytons, and was apparently a gift by king Cotys I to a local chief. The main item from the Letnitsa treasure is a horse harness consisting of small, decorated pieces. There were also objects related to the Odryssean king Seuthes III, which were excavated in the Valley of the Thracian Kings (where systematic excavations started in 2004), such as splendid helmets and the king's gold crown.
What I like best was the Rogozen treasure, which consists of no less than 164 pieces and is usually on display in the Museum of Vratsa. The phials, jugs, and goblets represent art styles from the mid-fifth to mid-fourth century. They were buried in a hurry, and probably were the complete treasure of one noble family that lost power to Philip of Macedon. Among the objects are representations that are surprisingly similar to the lion/bull-fight so well-known from Achaemenid art. I would have loved to learn more about this.
Like so many museums, the Jacquemart-André has decided to expose the objects in dark rooms, in which only the objects are illuminated. This creates a problem: because most information is offered in small booklets, there are always people reading in front of the displays. Worse, the rooms are too small for the many visitors, and it is impossible to study the objects at one's leisure. I left the museum dissatisfied, although I was very happy that the friendly guards allowed us to take photos for personal use.
[size=150:3pmhhv9s]3.[/size]
It is about half an hour from the Musée Jacquemart-André to the Musée Guimet on the Place de Jena (metro Jena). The exhibition "Afghanistan, les Trésors Retrouvés" has received much publicity and you see leaflets everywhere in Paris. And rightly so, because the Musée Guimet offers probably an unique chance to see the objects from the poor country to those of us who can not visit the Archaeological Museum of Kabul.
The first room is devoted to the objects from Aï Khanum, starting with the famous Cybele dish. You will also see a gargoyle, a capital, the Clearchus inscription (smaller than I expected), the sun dial, antefixes, and other objects you have until now only been able to read about. There's also a column from Herat. The second room contains lots of gold objects from Tillia Tepe, and the third room is devoted to Begram (Alexandria in the Caucasus). I was surprised to see how delicate the objects from this last site were.
It is obvious that the Museum Guimet is overreaching itself with this exhibition, which attracts so many people that it is no longer possible to study the objects. If you can reach them at all, because you will first have to join a queue at the Place de Jena, which lasted (when we were there) for about 40 minutes. Then, we could buy a ticket, and learned that the next queue, to enter the exhibition room, would take about 30 to 120 minutes; it was impossible to buy tickets for the next day. After some time in the second line, we could enter the first room, but there was a third queue (45 minutes) to see the gold objects.
Unlike my companion, I do not think that my hours in the museum were a waste of time: I saw objects any student of the ancient world simply must see. However, neither of us enjoyed our visit to the Museum Guimet.
Another unpleasant surprise was that taking pictures was allowed in the first room only, a rule with which the guards apparently did not feel very comfortable, because the lady who addressed us in the Begram room allowed us to finish a photo first, before she explained that there were unsolved copyright issues with the Kabul Museum. (Go here for photos from Tillia Tepe by someone who had more luck than we had.)
There is something wrong here. I understand that the Afghan archaeologists need money and want to guard their copyright, but the museum ticket already contains one euro for the reconstruction of the Museum of Kabul. It would have been better to double this sum and allow people to take pictures. Financial matters can never be an excuse for museums to disregard their first and foremost task: to enable visitors to see and study objects. A museum that does not allow this, and instead obstructs study, has something to explain.
