GOLDEN SPONGE STICK COMPETITION 2012

Burgess Hill School for Girls Golden Sponge Stick Competition 2012

Please contact our good friend Jerry Pine (j.pine610@btinternet.com) for full details or download the PDF file (here). [To download, right click and "save target as"]

Bronze at the Royal Academy: Metal made for Gods – and Monsters

From The Daily Telegraph, September 15 2012

The Royal Academy's latest show could just be the greatest exhibition of bronze works since the fall of the Roman Empire, says Martin Gayford. 

By Martin Gayford

Olympians and Paralympians may go for gold, but sculptors prefer bronze. Hard, beautiful and possible to cast in the finest detail, this greyish copper alloy has been one of the most popular sculptural materials for centuries, as the Royal Academy's major forthcoming exhibition, Bronze, reminds us. It promises to be the greatest array of works in this material seen in any one place since the fall of the Roman Empire. 

The show gathers together great masterpieces from many cultures, separated by both place and time: Java; Nigeria; the ancient Middle East; Etruria; Egypt; prehistoric Denmark and Austria; as well as Greece, Rome, Renaissance Italy and Hellenistic Bulgaria. There will be works by Picasso, Matisse and Rodin, Henry Moore and Louise Bourgeois, Donatello, Ghiberti and Giambologna. 

As Professor David Ekserdjian, the exhibition's co–curator, puts it, "bronze has always been considered a noble material". It was the sculptural material of choice in Ancient Greece and Rome. "Bronze working," noted Pliny the Elder, "came generally to be associated with statues of gods." It was popular too for equestrian sculptures of emperors – of which the great mounted monument to Marcus Aurelius survives in Rome – and naked athletes. Most of the celebrated masterpieces of Greek sculpture were bronzes. The fact that we know them all only by marble copies illustrates the great weaknesses of bronze: it's both valuable and easy to melt down. 

As Ekserdjian notes, the paradox is that all the Ancient Greek sculptures that remained on display in Athens or were successfully exported to Rome have disappeared: "The few that survive tend to be those that sank in ships or were buried." Among those, however, are some astonishing objects. One of the most sensational pieces in the exhibition is the Chimera of Arezzo, an Etruscan bronze from around the fifth century BC that was dug up in the Tuscan city in 1553. 

Taking the form of a lion with a goat's head bursting out of its back and a serpent's tail, the Chimera has fascinated Ekserdjian since he saw it on the cover of a book in his father's study when he was five or six years old. Lent by the Archaeological Museum in Florence, it is only one of a series of remarkable loans on show. From Copenhagen will come the sun chariot of Trundholm, another haunting and mysterious ancient object – a horse–drawn vehicle carrying a solar disc – discovered in a bog in 1902, and as Ekserdjian notes, just about the greatest Danish national treasure. 

Austrian law had to be changed to allow the loan of the Cult Wagon of Strettweg from Graz. Legislation had previously been passed preventing it ever leaving the country but, says Ekserdjian, "in the event they went to the Styrian parliament to overturn the ruling". 

Bronze is, of course, not the only material that can claim a worldwide reach. Stone carving is also pretty universal, as are ceramics. But, Ekserdjian argues, bronze sculpture from around the world makes for a much more coherent display than other media would. "Virtually all cultures produce some form of ceramic, but if you did an exhibition with Italian majolica, red figure vases from ancient Greece, Chinese blue and white [porcelain] it would look bizarre and awful, whereas the bronzes are friendly with one another." 

The exhibition will be arranged not chronologically or geographically, but in themes: figures, reliefs and so on. Objects from widely diverse cultures will be grouped together. Thus, among the heads on show are: a calmly beautiful product of the Nigerian Ife civilisation from the 14th or 15th century, and also a portrait of Seuthes III, a king of Thrace from the time of Alexander the Great. The latter, only discovered in 2004, and barely seen since, is one of the surprises of the exhibition. 

That bronzes with such various origins have so many qualities in common can perhaps be attributed to the fact that the challenges of casting have always been the same. Among them is the problem of scale. In classical antiquity extraordinary expertise was developed to create large–scale metal sculptures – the Horses of San Marco in Venice are surviving examples. 

Those ancient casting skills were subsequently half–forgotten in Europe during the Middle Ages, and rediscovered with difficulty. The Florentine artist Lorenzo Ghiberti was credited with being the first Renaissance master to cast life–size statues. One of the three he made for niches in the Orsanmichele church in Florence will be included in the exhibition. 

One of Ghiberti's successors, Benvenuto Cellini, describes in his autobiography how near the casting of his renowned bronze of Perseus came to catastrophe. In order to save the day, he ended up throwing all his household pewter plates (essentially made of tin) into the furnace to make the metal flow better. Leonardo and Michelangelo both attempted large–scale bronzes, though the huge horse Leonardo designed was never cast and of Michelangelo's two bronzes, one, a David, was lost in the French Revolution and the second, a nine–anda–half feet high statue of Julius II, was melted down by the Pope's enemies and turned into a cannon. 

The exhibition will have, if not an actual Leonardo sculpture, the next best thing: three pieces by Giovan Francesco Rustici (1474–1554) from the Florentine Baptistery. The Renaissance art historian Vasari wrote that, while Rustici was working on these sculptures, his friend and mentor Leonardo never left his side. Indeed, as Ekserdjian observes, "Some believe, but without knowing more than this, that Leonardo worked at them with his own hand, or at least assisted Giovan Francesco with his advice and good judgment." If you want to imagine what Leonardo's sculpture might have been like, he adds, "This is unquestionably as close as you are going to get." 

The precise recipe for sculptural bronze has varied enormously over the years: zinc, lead and – in early days – arsenic being added to the mix. Indeed, some sculptures long presumed to be bronzes – for example those by Ghiberti – have been revealed by modern analysis to be made of brass (which is copper plus zinc). Consequently, contemporary sculpture scholars tend to avoid the term "bronze" and refer more cautiously to "copper alloy". However, as Ekserdjian puts it, "we didn't think 'Copper Alloy' would be a very funky title for an exhibition". 

The poses of the three Rustici statues of St John the Baptist bring out one of the great advantages of bronze; its tensile strength means that you can do things with it that would never work – or soon break off – in marble or terracotta. Rustici's St John holds up one slender finger extended, in a gesture not unlike that of a sixth–century Indian Buddha. 

Louise Bourgeois's Spider, created centuries later, stands on its filigree legs, and that Etruscan Chimera, half crouched, seems ready to spring. "In terms of compositional adventurousness," says Ekserdjian, bronze sculpture is incredible." That's one reason why it has lasted, as a medium, from the 37th century BC to the 21st century AD. 

Beginners Online Latin in the Schola Latina Universalis

Latin courses begin in the Schola Latina Universalis

The SLU advocates the teaching of Latin as our common European language, and considers that its learning can only really succeed when the language is used actively, through listening and speaking.

The Schola Latina Universalis is an international Latin school on line that starts in 2012 its ninth academic year and has obtained a reputation of excellence in the teaching of Latin as a living language. Hundreds of students bear witness to its success and prove that Latin is a language like all others, which can be learnt in a much more pleasant and effective way than it often is.

The Schola Latina Universalis has been recommended by the Foundation Generation Europe in its diary Diarium Europa (p. 83), published in Latin by the European Commission.

This virtual institution, unique in the world and created to promote the perennial use of Latin, bases its activity on the method created to this effect by Clément Desessard, Lingua Latina sine molestia (Le latin sans peine, Il latino senza sforzo), published by the well-known house Assimil. With the title Sermó Latínus, which underlines their active nature, the on-line courses, originally created by A. Gratius Avitus, and now taught by A. Tullia Scholastica, Canicus Buckus and Maja Davidia, are offered completely for free to all those who have previously got hold of their own copy of Desessard's method (book and recordings).

All those who wish to learn Latin, the eternal language of our forefathers, so that they can not only read the texts with understanding but also write it with ease and fluently speak it in every circumstance, are invited to join these courses in order to bring again to active life and everyday use the only common linguistic patrimony Europe has ever known.

The intensive course, with all 101 lessons in one year at a pace of one every two days, starts on Monday 17 September. Those who prefer to do it in two years, with 56 lessons in the first year at a pace of one every three days, and the remaining 45 in the second year at the same pace, start on Monday 24 September.

Links

Schola Latina Universalis site: http://avitus.alcuinus.net/schola_latina/
Further information in English on the courses and how to enrol: http://avitus.alcuinus.net/schola_latina/ratio_en.php
Course materials: http://www.assimil.it/dettaglio.php?isbn=9788886968935

Latin to Undergo Vatican Renaissance

The Daily Telegraph

By Nick Squires, Rome

The Holy See has aligned itself unwittingly with the likes of London mayor Boris Johnson, an enthusiastic proponent of the classics, in calling for Latin to be given greater contemporary relevance and for more teaching in schools and universities.

Vatican officials want to see the language of Cicero and Caesar spread beyond the walls of the tiny city state, the only place in the world where ATM cash machines give instructions in Latin.

They say Pope Benedict XVI is preparing to establish a new pontifical academy for the study and promotion of Latin, to be known as the "Pontificia Academia Latinitatis".

Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council for Culture, said the academy will be staffed by "eminent academics of various nationalities, whose aim it will be to promote the use and knowledge of the Latin language in both ecclesiastical and civil contexts, including schools."

Latin remains the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and the idea is that if more people understand it, it will be easier to explain and disseminate the Church's teachings.

But Vatican translators have had to use ingenuity when rendering modern concepts into the ancient language of the Roman Empire.

In 2003 the Vatican published a lexicon of 15,000 Latin terms for modern-day words.

A photocopied document is rendered as "exemplar luce expressum", while a parachute is an "umbrella descensória".

In the unlikely event that a Catholic priest needs to use the word "hot pants" in Latin, he would have to say "brevíssimae bracae femíneae".

If he was writing about a mountain bike he would use the words "bírota montāna" while if he needed to ask someone to send an email, he would request an "inscriptio cursus electronici".

When Vatican officials translated an encyclical written by the Pope about the environment, they rendered alternative energy sources as "fontes alterius generis".

Latin's prominence as the language of the Catholic Church has been watered down since the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

Before that, priests of different nationalities had an advanced understanding of a language which the rest of the world regarded as dead or dying.

"When I was a young seminarian I was once on the border of Italy and Austria, where we met a group of priests. We spoke not in German or in Italian but in Latin," Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman, told The Daily Telegraph.

"There is certainly a desire for more people to learn and understand Latin. From the Church's point of view, the more people who speak Latin, the better."

The Classical Anthology

THE CLASSICAL ANTHOLOGY – NEW SITE AND RESOURCES FOR CLASSICISTS!

Website : http://classicalanthology.theclassicslibrary.com/
Reply to: stephenjenkin@theclassicslibrary.com

The Classical Anthology is a new website which we hope will grow into a collection of beautiful, inspiring and memorable passages from Greek and Latin literature, each with a translation so that anyone can enjoy them and share them. It includes anything written in Greek or Latin, from earliest times to the present day. A surprising number of people have studied Latin or even Greek at some point and even those who have not also have a great enthusiasm for the Classics. One of the aims of the anthology is to foster this enthusiasm by making the gems of Classical literature easily accessible to anyone and by encouraging anyone to suggest a passage. The Classical Anthology also aims to celebrate and share the huge range of experience and expertise among those teaching and studying Classics worldwide. We hope that scholars and teachers will also contribute, either to suggest a well-loved passage that many people will know and appreciate, or to recommend a passage from a less well-known author that others would be delighted to discover. The best length for passages is around 20-40 lines and please can you recommend a translation too – a more literal one is better, to help with reading the original. Your own translation would be great and would avoid copyright problems, although the publishers approached so far have been very supportive. 

Lastly, a few introductory words explaining what you find special about this passage will really help to make the anthology inspiring. We will edit and upload the contributions but will consult you first if we see the need for any significant alterations. 

So please visit http://classicalanthology.theclassicslibrary.com and send in your suggestions via the form there.

Please also tell your friends. Lastly, we hope you enjoy using the website yourself. We look forward to hearing from you. 

Thank you! 

Jane Mason and Stephen Jenkin 

stephenjenkin@theclassicslibrary.com 

 Messages to the list are archived at http://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/classicists.html

Motya

Professor Paul Cartledge (Clare College, Cambridge) reflects on the Motya charioteer

On the island of Mozia (ancient Motya) in 1979 a quite remarkable discovery was made in regular excavations: a lifesize (1.81m as preserved) marble (?Parian) sculpture of a male figure, dressed - or rather sheathed - in a transparently revealing see-through long khiton. Presumably he had originally been painted, but no trace of paint survives; the original placement of one arm is not certain, the other was placed on the body in such a way as to accentuate both the transparency of the garment and the fleshiness of the flesh beneath - indeed, the allure of the whole pose and attitude is as much feminine as masculine. Yet the head reveals traces of an attachment which could - only one possibility - have been a helmet. Such are the quality and date - ‘severe’ style of the 470s, probably - of the work that within a decade of its discovery it had prompted a major conference dedicated to it (published in Rome in 1988). Such are its strikingly individual characteristics that scholars are still, thirty years on, massively at odds over its contested interpretation - and the loan of the figure currently to the BM and its location there in the Duveen, i.e. Parthenon-marbles, Gallery have only fanned the flames. 

Broadly, there are two schools of thought, the ‘Punic’ and the ‘Greek’, as I shall call them for convenience - and in this, like many who know far more about these things than I do, I am indebted to a powerful article by Malcolm Bell in the Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome for 1995. Either the statue was made (by a Greek sculptor or workshop) for (and of?) a Phoenician-origin ruler or leading aristocrat of Motya or it was made elsewhere, in the Greek world and as a purely Greek commission, and then removed forcibly to Motya as loot, perhaps by Carthaginians, some time before 397 BC (the presumptive date at which the contextual deposit was sealed). 

It would be a help, of course, if we knew for sure what - or rather what sort of a male figure - the statue depicted. If ‘Punic’, suggestions have ranged across god, hero, priest, official and private individual. If the ‘Greek’ hypothesis is adopted, then there are two major contestants for the prize: either he is a charioteer (the majority view), 

or - a powerfully argued minority view, which deserves all the respect due to the scholarship of Professor Olga Palagia of Athens University - he is a seer (mantis). 

Rather than rehearse in detail all the possible arguments for and against either the Punic or the Greek hypothesis, I should like to suggest an alternative, hybrid view, which leans more to the ‘Punic’ than the ‘Greek’ but tries to do justice to both. On Occam’s razor principles, let’s first assume it was made for where it was found, more or less. That enables one at once to free oneself from having to bow to the normal social and stylistic constraints that would apply to a Greek work commissioned at that period by a Greek individual or body for a conventional Greek context and intended to perform a conventional Greek social, political or/and artistic function. Let us then further accept the most powerful single argument in favour of the ‘charioteer’ hypothesis, namely the nature and positioning on the body of the belt. (Palagia’s ‘seer’ hypothesis does go some way to accounting for the apparent transvestism of the handling of the drapery and the flesh beneath, but it does not adequately account for his belt; on the other hand, the long khiton does certainly when taken with the belt look like a xystis, the characteristic charioteer’s garb, but, had it been adorning an image of Dionysus, say, it would not have looked wildly odd or out of place.) We thus have, ex hypothesi, a commission by a non-Greek Motyan of a Greek, charioteer-like lifesize marble statue, which seems - for a purely Greek work - excessively feminine in its allure. How to explain the apparent mismatch? In two (or three?) words, cross-cultural misunderstanding. 

Comparison with the Charioteer artwork of roughly the same epoch is both inevitable - and illuminating. It’s no accident as they say that the triumphal dedication at Delphi, the navel of the world, is in bronze - for that was the medium of choice by then for the very finest life-size representational Greek artworks. But our charioteer is in marble, which - especially in its finest Parian form - had the advantage that it alone allowed the achievement of the virtuoso ‘wet-look’. That the commission was for a non-Greek context, moreover, allowed further artistic experiment, in the shape of the extraordinary handling of the sub-vestimental flesh, including by the way the rather prominent, ballet-dancer-like treatment of the genitals. 

How to explain the misunderstanding? What the possibly in some sense philhellenic Motyan commissioner of this statue had perhaps failed to appreciate above all was that in Greek sports the charioteer was not himself the main man - or woman: that was the victorious owner of the horses and chariot, for whom the charioteer worked typically as a low-status hired professional. Rather as Plutarch said of Pheidias - one would not actually wish to be Pheidias, however much one admired his divine handiwork - so one might say that, if one was an elite Greek, one certainly would not wish to spend a vast amount of one’s money so as to be commemorated publicly as a charioteer. 

I rest my case: the Motya Auriga is indeed (meant to be) a charioteer, and he is indeed a Greek work of art (of the highest art indeed), but he is a ‘barbarian’ not a Greek charioteer, designed to glorify a local Motyan aristocrat, but one who got a little lost in the translation of original Greek art and representation to his native island-city.

Boris recites "the" Ode

Here is Boris reciting the Greek ode on the 'opening' of the plaque in the Olympic park.

http://www.frequency.com/video/boris-reads-olympic-ode-broadband/55910325/-/5-8989623