Temple of Athena, Acropolis, Athens

Early morning arrival at Valletta, Malta

More Ancient Greek Art

Continuing the Ancient Greek Art theme, I thought we’d share a few pieces from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, pictured below.

Below is the Head of Athena that was found in the Roman Agora of Athens, ca. 450 BC.

And one of my favorites:  Artemision Jockey (about 140 BC).  This bronze statue of a hourse and young jockey was found in pieces from a shipwreck off Cape Artemision in Euboea, and was reassembled in 1971.  His left hand is not making a rude gesture, but would have held the reins for the horse.

Statue of a Sphinx

Since I’ve been looking through our “Ancient Greece Art” photos, today’s picture is from the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.  This piece is Statue of a Sphinx, made of pentelic marble.  It was found in Spata, Attica, and is one of the earliest known Archaic Sphinxes and dated about 570 B.C. 

This is one of many important pieces you can find in the museum.  We found this to be worth the time and if we had not had a scheduled excursion, we would have still found our way to the museum.

 

The Art of Ancient Greece - AP Art History Unit

Our older son is taking AP Art History this year.  While we were traveling around, I thought how some of the things we would see in Florence would likely be things he would cover in class, but he is getting an early start as their second unit is on the Art of Ancient Greece. 

His teacher provides 20+ images for each unit that they will study, and from this unit, there are several pieces of art and architecture that they will be covering that we actually saw!  Here are a few of them.

How cool is that? I love when school work and vacation come together!

 

Lost sunglasses

At some point on our first excursion in Monaco and France, I lost my sunglasses.  I know I had them even though it was an overcast day, but the next morning when I was searching for them before heading to Cinque Terre, I couldn’t find them.  I looked all over the cabin, double-checked my day bag, and searched through everything.  The best I could determine is that they fell out of my day bag on the motorcoach on our way back to the port from Eze.  You can’t really see them, but I zoomed in and checked that my sunglasses are in the outside pocket of my day bag right near my hand which is on my camera case.  This photo was in Eze. 

 

A lost pair of sunglasses might not seem like a big deal, but in the Mediterranean, you want to have sunglasses; the sun is bright and sometimes very intense, especially as you head further south.  Because I wear glasses, I use the “fit over the glasses” kind of sunglasses to give fuller coverage than just those that clip onto my lenses.  Fortunately, our younger son uses the same kind of sunglasses, so I was able to occasionally borrow his when he was staying onboard, but our photos show where I was squinting in the bright light, to the point where my eyes are nearly closed.  So much for getting a family photo we can actually use for our holiday cards this year.

I should be glad that I didn’t lose a pair of prescription sunglasses; my Solar Shields are $20; the prescription lenses would be so much more!  And if anyone was going to lose them, better me than one of the kids for me to fuss at all month.  I kept thinking I would pick up another pair, but I managed to make it through without them.  But my thought is to go ahead and buy two pair when I get around to replacing them, especially if we’ll be traveling where I can’t get to my usual stores.  Then I’ll have a back-up pair.

 

Photo: Temple of Apollo (Didim, Turkey)

Temple of Apollo, Didim, Turkey