A dazzling exhibition of gold Hellenistic jewelry has been impressing visitors at the Benaki Museum in Athens since November and will continue to do so until April 2025.
The exhibition “Art in Gold: Jewelry in Hellenistic Times,” highlights the art of jewelry making in the Hellenistic period, following the conquests of Alexander the Great, where it reached its peak. It explores a number of themes, including how were these exquisite pieces of ancient goldsmith’s art made and if the Hellenistic tradition can inspire contemporary creators.
The exhibition, showcasing over 400 items and divided into twelve thematic sections is put together through the participation of 30 museums and Ephorates of Antiquities in Greece along with five international museums. The jewelry displayed also serve as an imprint of the large quantities of gold Alexander the Great found in the vaults of Persian kings.
What can the visitors see at the gold Hellenistic jewelry exhibition
The exhibition features a unique collection of gold jewelry from the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC), with a large number from the “Thessaly/Karpenisi Hoard,” which is shared between the National Archaeological Museum in Athens and the Benaki Museum. It comprises of 44 pieces of women’s jewelry with unclear provenance in Greece.
Second-century BC goldsmith’s tools found in Bosnia-Herzegovina are exhibited for the first time in Greece, while informative texts and graphics, as well as videos and animations relating to the basic techniques of jewelry making accompany the exhibition.
A video showing contemporary jewelry maker and researcher Akis Goumas reconstructing parts of a precious diadem in the Benaki Museum, the result of several years of research and experimentation, is screened in a special room.
Contemporary creations by Peter Bauhuis, Akis Goumas, Patrick Davison, Pura Ferreiro, Anastasia Kandaraki, Lucia Massei, Dimitris Nikolaidis and Despina Pantazopoulou, inspired by jewelry displayed at the Benaki Museum, will be exhibited alongside the antiquities.
The unique art behind Hellenistic gold jewelry
“The initial idea took form nearly eight years ago when I first collaborated with Akis Goumas, jeweler and researcher of ancient jewelry making techniques,” Eirini Papageorgiou, an archaeologist and curator at the Museum’s prehistoric, ancient Greek and Roman collections told Athens-Macedonian News Agency. “I proposed that he reconstructs a section of the diadem from the Thessaly Hoard, a precious and valuable diadem of extremely complicated construction. Within about three and a half years, Akis Goumas reconstructed a section of the knitted chain and one of the two plaques shown in the section of technology.”
Papageorgiou added that Hellenistic jewelry reconstructions have been carried out by others also, but with modern tools. “The difference and the innovation we provide in the reconstruction is that we found traces of ancient tools on the original piece of jewelry, and we were based on these to reconstruct the tools we show at the exhibition and which were used in the experimental application. This collaboration therefore, raised a lot of questions I wanted to answer related to the technical know-how and technical construction of Hellenistic jewelry.”
She noted that the apex reached in gold jewelry making during the Hellenistic times, was never repeated in Greece over the following centuries.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
