I spent about 75 minutes at the Metropolitan Museum this afternoon, as promised, and was very happy with what I saw of the New Greek and Roman Galleries.   Finally, the Met has housed Roman Art in a wing worthy of it’s large and, in the case of some wall paintings, almost unparalleled, collection.

I could tell you this – I will go back to the Roman wing often.   Having watched both seasons of HBO’s Rome, I feel as if I lived in Rome around the time of the early Caesars (who knows, maybe I did).    I’m sorry the show ended this season (I guess it was too expensive to produce more than 2 seasons) – I learned a great deal about Roman History that would  be difficult to really envision had I not watched the series, which covered the end of the Roman Republic, the Death of Caesar and the rise of Augustus.  Largely due to the series on Rome, I was able to appreciate Agrippa’s role in the early empire of Augustus Caesar, and some murals from one of  Agrippa’s Villa’s was on the walls of the Metropolitan, and in very good shape, I might add.

Here’s some pictures that I took today at the Roman wing of the Metropolitan – when I have information or thoughts about a picture, I’ll mention those ideas below the picture.

This is how the Roman wing looks like when you enter.

 

This Seated Muse was very powerful and the twisting and off-angle reminded me of the kind of thing I stumbled on in some of my paintings like Homage to Manet and a recent BAG Studio Study were by twisting and moving off center, I created dynamic movement in my work that’s not often there – much like what happened with this powerful stature from antiquity.

I think the part of a face is more interesting than the whole face in many of the ancient sculptures and this one caught my eye today.

 

Pretty powerful portrait of Emperor Constantine, the first Christian Emperor.

 

This wall painting reminds me of Brice Marden’s work – it also contains motif’s used in HBO Rome series quite often, including the Snake.

The Metropolitan has really delivered on the Roman Wing – Like I say, I’ll come here often, perhaps whenever I come to the Museum.