The bedrock of classical Western art, Greco-Roman mythology comes to Taipei’s National Palace Museum in a new exhibition of artifacts on loan from several French museums, including the Louvre.
Many of the sculptures, paintings and murals on display in Western Mythology and Legends — A Special Exhibition From the Louvre Museum are fundamental to any introduction to the development of Western art. The works, collected together around a number of themes, provide a forum for new perspectives on these often familiar images.
This special exhibit comprises 10 prized works from the Louvre, as well as items loaned from six other French institutions: the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Tours; Musee des Beaux-Arts de Dijon; Arras, Musee des Beaux-Arts; Musee Ingres, Montauban; Roubaix, La Piscine — Musee d’Art et d’Industrie Andre Diligent; Musee National des Chateaux de Versailles et de Trianon.
Photo courtesy of Media Sphere Communications
The show confirms just how far the National Palace Museum has come as a venue for exhibitions of an international caliber.
The display area provides ample space for each individual exhibit, as befits both the level of detail and the importance of the works; extensive introductions are provided for each of the five themed sections of the show; and there is a wealth of information to take in.
It is a great boon for expatriate residents of Taipei that for this exhibition, guided tours for groups of 20 or more will be available in English (booking two weeks in advance required. For enquiries, call (02) 6630-8388). An excellent catalog and audio guide are available in Chinese.
Photo courtesy of Media Sphere Communications
The stories built around the Olympian gods, their predecessors and many children, have been popular for more than two millennia, and in that time they exerted a powerful influence on artists.
Even for those unschooled in the classics, characters such as Poseidon, lord of oceans, and Venus, goddess of love, are familiar references, and the exhibition opens a door to great tales of their many deeds.
“Mythology has molded every aspect of Western thought and has permeated our language. This is why we believe that these fascinating stories from Greco-Roman mythology and literature should be shared with Asian audiences,” Henri Loyrette, President-Director of the Louvre Museum said in a statement about the exhibition.
Photo courtesy of Media Sphere Communications
The exhibition is presented in five segments: the formation of the world, the gods of Olympus, love and lust among the gods, the age of heroes, and a concluding section showing the influence of these epics throughout Western history.
Following the stories is one way of enjoying the exhibition; another is to marvel at the transformation of Western art from the heyday of ancient Greece to the 19th century, ranging from the sedate murals from ancient Pompeii of the 12 muses to the high drama of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Ruggiero Rescuing Angelica.
Given the nature of much Greco-Roman mythology, there are lots of depictions of martial valor as well as erotic dalliance, and the exhibition is tangentially also an exploration of how the human body has been depicted through the ages.
Photo courtesy of Media Sphere Communications
The subtle eroticism of Artemis of the Chase stands in sharp contrast to the rococo voluptuousness of Francois Boucher’s Apollo Revealing His Divinity Before the Shepherdess Isse.
The many representations of the human form, the variety of narrative devices, the playfulness and the frank salaciousness that appear in this exhibition mean it is easy to be overwhelmed by an abundance of possibilities. But the curators have done an excellent job in giving form to the many ideas at play in these art works, and what they have created certainly warrants an extended visit.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s
Located down a sideroad in old Wanhua District (萬華區), Waley Art (水谷藝術) has an established reputation for curating some of the more provocative indie art exhibitions in Taipei. And this month is no exception. Beyond the innocuous facade of a shophouse, the full three stories of the gallery space (including the basement) have been taken over by photographs, installation videos and abstract images courtesy of two creatives who hail from the opposite ends of the earth, Taiwan’s Hsu Yi-ting (許懿婷) and Germany’s Benjamin Janzen. “In 2019, I had an art residency in Europe,” Hsu says. “I met Benjamin in the lobby
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist