Defining Beauty: the body in ancient Greek art, British Museum ★★★★★

Below is our preview, giving background information about the exhibition.

When famous painters and sculptors explain how they were “classically trained”, they are often referring to the years spent drawing from life and examining in detail, sculptures of the human body. This British Museum exhibition 2015 takes a look at the origins of this training, and the Ancient Greek sculptors and craftsmen that made the pursuit of mimetic beauty their arduous mission. Make sure to book your British Museum tickets now!

British museum Greek exhibition

The decision to showcase the magnificent British Museum Ancient Greece collections together with never-before-seen loaned works is a unique insight into the history of Western art. Over 150 objects including white marble statues, terracotta and bronze works, celebrate the statement by ancient philosopher Pythagoras that “Man is the measure of all things”.

British museum highlights

Some works in the British Museum collection will be shown for the very first time, including an original bronze sculpture of a nude athlete, scraping his body with a metal tool after exercise and before bathing. It was raised off the seabed near Lošinj, Croatia in 1999, and has undergone years of conservation.

In other areas of the exhibition, popular pieces from the museum’s collection are placed into unique pairings: make sure to look for the Belvedere Torso, lent by the Vatican Museum. This Roman copy of a Greek original of a seated hero, perhaps the Greek hero Herakles, was regarded by Michelangelo as the finest fragment of classical sculpture that could be seen when he was alive.

The astoundingly skilful and endless creativity possessed by ancient Greek sculptors has had a profound influence on the history of art and how artists express the human body. Pay a visit to the British Museum, London to discover the legacy Western art owes to a group of artists from the remote realms of antiquity.