On view January 13, 2023 through 2026
Life in the ancient world was marked by many of the same events and experiences as our modern life: most obviously birth, marriage and death, as well as war and peace. People felt love and hate, just as us. Food and drinks stilled hunger and thirst. Music and dance provided amusement. Theater and sports provided leisure and entertainment. Trade and travel brought goods and ideas from farther away. Faith and worship offered hope when all else failed. For thousands of years, daily life will have changed very little for most common people and will have differed only depending on the land and climate of each region. Commoners toiled the land, they hunted game and gathered other foods. Men may have been called upon to serve in the army in times of war. People will have visited temples in times of public festivals or personal hardship.
This display of the Antiquities Collection of the Tampa Museum of Art aims to introduce some of those general aspects of life and death in the ancient world. The Lemonopoulos Gallery is broadly divided into five main themes: namely (1.) daily life – including human and animal figures, everyday ceramics, metal tools and glassware, portrayals of love and beauty ideals; (2.) amusement – including theater and sports, wine production and consumption; (3.) death and dying – including funerary vessels and (fragments of) sarcophagi; (4.) religion – including illustrations of myths and rituals; and (5.) power and trade – including warfare and seafaring, as well as two coin cabinets. The displays in the middle of the gallery generally showcase one or two artworks, while those along the walls and in the aisles regularly feature a larger selection of pieces so as to exhibit the variety of the Museum’s Antiquities Collection.
Watch an episode of Art Perspectives about “Life and Death in the Ancient World” on the Tampa Bay Arts & Education Network:
