Yesterday, I met a friend for lunch at the Pierpoint Morgan Library in New York City. And as ancient art seems to follow me around, I was not surprised to see a couple of Roman pieces in the Rotunda and Library respectively of Mr. Morgan's Library and Study:
- A Pair of Double Cups with Repoussé Decorations of Cranes, first century AD, silver with traces of original gilding. They were fairly small but delicately worked.
- A statue, "Running Eros, Holding Torch," Bronze, from the second or first century BC, which was found in one of the villas in Boscoreale, destroyed by the Vesuvius eruption, or so it said. If you google boscoreale villas, or boscoreale archaeology, you'll find a lot of interesting things, including these pages from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Roman Painting: Frescoes From Campania.
On the lower level there was a fascinating display of Masterworks from the Morgan Near Eastern Seals. Each seal had an enlarged photograph below it so that on could see the amazing miniature art. There are two examples on the above page, and you can enlarge them and zoom in to view the wonderful work. The collection includes pieces dating from 3500 to 330 BC.
