Figures Loved and Idealised
Exhibition at Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens.
«Figures loved and idealised ...» Illustrating poems of C.P.Cavafy
Most people have read at least one poem by Cavafy... ‘Ithaka’ possibly...
But how many of us have actually seen the images and figures that prevail his works and mind?
Statues and portraits of Alexander the Great, Dimitrios Poliorcetes, Iulius Caesar or Nero, are presented in align with Cavafy’s poems, bearing the aura of the Hellenistic period, which the Alexandrian poet admired and referred to the most. And of course, alongside the hint, the parable, the irony and the meaning.
The exhibition “Figures’ loved and idealised ...Illustrating poems by C.P.Cavafy” focuses on figures that play a leading role in Cavafy's poetry. Inspired by the verse “Voices, loved and idealized” from Cavafy’s poem Voices, the exhibition uses archaeological artefacts to illustrate a selection of poems with mythological and, especially, historical subjects, which experts believe comprise approximately one third of Cavafy’s work.
These are drawn either from myth or from the pages of history and, especially, the broader horizon of the Hellenistic world as it formed under the successors of Alexander the Great. Other sections relate to historical figures and events of the Roman period and Late Antiquity, to the transitional period before Christianity’s predominance, and to the Byzantine and Post-Byzantine periods.
The exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Cavafy Archive/Onassis Foundation and the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. It presents 67 ancient artefacts, that illustrate the 27 selected poems, and which come from 14 Greek museums. They include sculptures (primarily marble heads, busts, statuettes, and groups), bronze vessels, terracotta figurines and clay vases, faience objects, coins, funerary portraits, grave stelai, as well as icons and ecclesiastical vessels of the Post-Byzantine period.
This exhibition is an evocative exposition of the true meaning of some of Cavafy’s most important poems, bolstered by the museographical display and scenography. Thus, meaning and ancient artefacts merge so that a poem’s moment of conception and writing is moved to the time of Cavafy’s protagonists, offering the reader-visitor a novel ‘communion’.
To coincide with the exhibition, educational programs for schools, workshops for children and families, guided tours and lectures for the public will be organised.
