Dallas Museum of Art - The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece

The Body Beautiful featuring masterworks from the British Museum is an internal touring exhibition of more than one hundred and twenty pieces.  With a name like 'the Body Beautiful,' you understand there will be a large percentage of piece nude.  I chose not to take the girls to this exhibit, just Caleb.  If you wonder why, well it goes back to the 'fig tree' post earlier this week. 

 

In covering Bible Bowl in 2007 we studied the book of Acts. In chapter 17 Paul was speaking to the Areopagus speaking about the idols made with human hands that they worshiped.  Many of the pieces in this exhibit could have been such pieces!   This collection is Greek and Roman bronze and marble sculptures, vessels, jewelry, ornate Sarcophagi from 200B.C. forward. 

 

Caleb also has an almost freakishly large data base of Greek and Roman mythology in his head.  Each piece we came to he gave me the background story of each deity, their Roman name, their Greek origins, etc.  He even gave me a lesson on etymology of the word 'panic' from Pan, the Greek god of woods and fields who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots.

 

There is a section in this exhibit where the pieces are in more sexual poses that we opted to skip.  Again, like Solomon wrote, 'there is nothing new under the sun.'  These appeared in their temples of worship, not just on the MTV awards show. 

 

The exhibit was very extensive, there is something to appeal to each viewer.  I am amazed at the talent to mold, paint or sculpt such pieces during such a primitive time. Caleb was captured by nuggets of information in Greek Mythology that he had not read before.  

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you.  “The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands."

Acts 17:22-24