Athens, National Archaeological Museum

Q637187

That was not very clever: visiting the National Archaeological Museum on the last day of a two week trip through northern and central Greece. Of course, it was a nice summary of everything we’ve seen, but I think it would have been better to start over here. Ever a teacher, I might have used the museum’s splendid collection of sculpture to explain to my companions the development of Greek art.

That’s what you’ll find on the first floor: lots of sculpture in a series of rooms surrounding a large hall, which is devoted to Mycenaean art. There, you will find the golden objects from Mycenae that Schliemann found. The sculpture rooms surround it. Your tour starts with some kouroi and you can easily follow the growth to greater accuracy in representing the human body. When you’ve finished about a third of your tour, the Greek sculptors have mastered every aspect of anatomy, and you will pass along many classical sculptures, including two dazzling copies of the Diadumenus and the Cnidian Aphrodite. After that, more sculpture: the fourth century, Hellenism, and finally the Roman age.

On the ground floor, there’s also a series of rooms that contain metal art. Here, you will see the Anticythera Mechanism, but also collections of arrowheads from Marathon and Thermopylae. The Egyptian part – also on the ground floor – is a bit odd in a museum dedicated to Greek art, but the collection is too small to be exposed in a museum of its own and too important to keep stored away. In the Hellenistic part of the Egyptian collection, I noticed a statue of Hephaestion that I had never seen before.

Upstairs, you will find a marvelous collection of pottery and some objects that don’t fit anywhere else, like the Lemnian inscription, written in a language related to Etruscan. Next to it is a section dedicated to the investigations at Santorini, where some splendid frescoes have been found.

Do not forget to visit the basement. There’s a little café with a garden, where you will see some of the sculptures found in the Anticythera wreck. They have a certain beauty because they are partly eroded. I found the giant Heracles absolutely fascinating.

This museum was visited in 1989, 1992, 2004, 2007, 2010.

76 pictures related to this museum

Megara, Statue of a Roman emperor (Trajan or Hadrian)	Epidauros, Temple of Artemis, Nike	Eretria, Lekythos (Bosanquet Painter)	Oropos, Aeolian-Ionic capital
Eleusis, Relief of Demeter, Triptolemus, and Kore	Athens, Temple of Zeus, Portrait of Polemo of Laodicea	Dodona, Figurine of Zeus Keraunos	Athens, Kerameikos, Skull of Myrthis
Argos, Heraion, Amazonomachy	Larisa, Tombstone of a man with a hat	Olympia, Head of the boxer Satyros	Thebes, Tombstone
Sparta, Statue of Julia Aquilia Severa, damaged after her death	Athens, Statue of a Minotaur	Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Palladion	Smyrna, Portrait of Caligula, reworked to resemble Titus
Lycian portrait of Omphale	Athens, Agora, Late Geometric pyxis	Lemnos, Tombstone of an Etruscan (?) warrior	Athens, Stoa of Attalus, Attalus II Philadelphus
Piraeus, Funerary stela of Damasistrate	Nysa, Bouleuterion, "Little Refugee"	Artemisium, Statue of Zeus	Piraeus, Votive stela of a reclining Dionysus
Mycene, House of the Warrior Krater, Warrior Krater	Lebadeia, Relief of Trophonius	Zeus and Ganymedes	Thermopylae, Arrowheads
Alexandria, Alexander the Great (part of a group with Hephaestion)	Mycene, Dagger with lion hunt	Melos, Statue of Poseidon	Mycene, Boar's tusk helmet
Corinth, Plate with Demeter	Argos, Heraion, Sima	Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of antelopes	Decree of Tefnakht
Marathon, Arrowheads	Lead figurine of Athena	Athens, Kerameikos, Siren	Corinth, Relief of a hoplite
The fight for the body of Patroclus.	Eleusis, Tombstone of a warrior	Aegina, Ptolemy VI Philometor	Hellenistic ruler
Athens, Varvakeion Athena	Piraeus, Head of a bearded god	Eleusis, Temple F, Cecrops and Herse	Alexandria, Hephaestion (part of a group with Alexander)
Pharsalus, Krater with a four-horse chariot	Sais, Temple of Neith, Statuette	Aegina, Tombstone of a young man, holding a bird	Eretria, Gymnasium, Statue of Cleonicus
Akrotiri, Building B, Room B1, Wall painting of boxers	Argos, Theater, Statue of Aphrodite	Piraeus, Julian the Apostate	Eucratides II of Bactria
Piraeus, Statue of a woman or Demeter	Aegina, Temple of Apollo, Statue of a wounded warrior	Eleusis, Relief of a drunk Heracles	Argos, Relief of the Doryphorus of Polykleitos
Gomphoi, Relief of Odysseus and Amphicleia	Megiste, Bellerophon sarcophagus.	Argos, Heraion, West pediment, Head of Hera	Megara, Statue of Dionysus
Athens, Kerameikos, Base of the statue of a wrestler	Athens, Kerameikos, Dipylon krater	Piraeus, Funerary stela with ball players	Larisa, Tombstone of Polyxena
Chalcis-Vromousa, Head of a woman (Roman copy of a Greek original)	Thebes (?), Block statue of Prince Horwedja, governor and high priest in Heliopolis	Athens, Pnyx, Lenormant Athena	Mycene, Wall painting ("La Parisienne")
Athens, Kerameikos, Alexander with a Lion's Pelt	Piraeus, Theater, Head of Dionysus (classicizing)	Mycene, Wall painting of a griffin with a warrior	Thebes, Head of Artemis