The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the richest and most varied representation, outside Cyprus, of Cypriot antiquities. These works were purchased by the newly established Museum in the mid-1870s from General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, a Civil War cavalry officer who had amassed the objects while serving as the American consul on Cyprus." "This catalogue is published on the occasion of the opening of the Museum's four permanent galleries for ancient art from Cyprus. It is also the first scholarly publication since 1914 devoted to the Cesnola Collection (which totals approximately six thousand objects). The volume features some five hundred pieces from the collection, illustrated in new color photography. Dating from about 2500 B.C. to about A.D. 300, these works rank among the finest examples of Cypriot art from the prehistoric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Among the objects are monumental sculpture; weapons, tools, and domestic utensils; vases, lamps, and ritual paraphernalia; dedicatory figurines; engraved sealstones and jewelry; and luxury objects."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The 17 figurines published here are but a small sample of the objects excavated more than 100 years ago at the Bronze Age necropolis at the site of Ayia Paraskevi in Cyprus. Vassos Karageorghis introduces the volume with an insightful essay on the significance of the site and one of its early excavators, Max Ohnefalsch-Richter. Terence Brennan contributes information on the history of the Museum's acquisition of these pieces based on a 12-year correspondence between Sara Yorke Stevenson, one of the Museum's early founders, and Ohnefalsch-Richter. The volume contains a detailed catalogue of the 17 figurines, including bibliography and comparanda.
The Cesnola Collection of antiquities from Cyprus preserves the island’s artistic traditions from prehistoric through Roman times and represents the first large group of ancient Mediterranean works to enter the museum’s collection. This catalogue, which focuses on Cypriot terracottas, was originally published in 2004 as a CD-ROM, and is now available in a more accessible format. It contains nearly 500 works dating from between about 2000 B.C. and the 2nd century A.D. from one of the most expansive collections of Cypriot art in the world. Illustrations of each object are accompanied by a detailed catalogue entry, including a brief bibliography. In addition, fifteen commentaries make the catalogue a perfect introduction to Cypriot terracottas and the colorful world of ancient life and mythology.
The Cypriot Collection of the National Archaeological Museum comprises about 850 artefacts, of which several were donated by various collectors in the late 19th and early 20th century, while others, formerly illegally owned, are the product of recent confiscations. The Collection has a wealth of sculptures, pottery and terracottas, covering virtually the entire spectrum of Cypriot archaeology from the early bronze age (ca 2500 B.C.) to Roman times (4th century A.D.). The chapter on the history of the Collection was contributed by the Director of the National Archaeological Museum, Dr. Nikolaos Kaltsas.
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