Museum Observation Paper for Ancient Art History

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Gilbert xxxxxx I chose to do my museum observation paper on the Sarcophagus with scenes from the life of Achilles. I found the piece visiting the Getty Villa in Malibu. It is an ancient sort of coffin with relief all around it and a sculpture as a lid. The Sarcophagus has scenes from the life Achilles and Odysseus from Homer’s epics on the front and two sides. On the right side Odysseus finds Achilles hiding with the daughters of Lykomedes on the island of Skyros. On the left side Odysseus helps Achilles put on his armor. The front shows Achilles riding his chariot by the walls of Troy, dragging the body of Hektor. It also has a shallowly sculpted battle scene between the Greeks and the centaurs on the backside that was not being displayed. It is showing that Achilles didn’t really want to fight in the war because he was hiding surrounded by women when Odysseus found him. I’m guessing that in the scene where he’s putting on the armor Odysseus has convinced him to fight so he is helping him put the armor on and prepare for battle. On the front, it shows warriors fighting, holding weapons and Achilles victorious in the Trojan War. He has his foot on top of the body like he’s trying to show he killed Hektor at the same time trying to drag him around on his chariot. His corpse was stripped of its clothes and armor. The lid of the sarcophagus shows a couple lying on a couch. The artist purposely left the heads unfinished so that the owners of the piece can have their portraits sculpted on the faces. So it is a devotional work of art that a particularly wealthy couple would have used. Only the most expensive sarcophagi had a lid like this. It was following in Etruscan tradition and is an example of the most expensive western burial box. The artist sculpted the scenes onto the sarcophagus. It is relief in motion, and it shows a story going on so it is narrative.

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