World Culture Galleries

Gallery of Greece

Level 3, Philosophers' Walk Wing
The Gallery of Greece features approximately 1,500 artifacts including marble sculptures, beautiful terracotta figurines, vases, coins, and jewellery. These artifacts continue the story of Greek creativity throughout the Archaic (700 - 500 BC), Classical (500 - 323 BC), and early Hellenistic periods (323 - 31 BC). This nearly 700-year time span witnessed the birth of Western art: the Gods appear in human form and the human figure is no longer rendered as a simple shape but in an idealized manner. The feminine ideal is highlighted in a number of statues depicting the goddess Aphrodite.

The beautiful black-figure and red-figure vases of the Archaic and Classical periods depict Greek life including daily routines, entertainment, war and hunting. Marble statues and terracotta pieces span all three periods and demonstrate the development of Greek sculpture. Visitors will notice that Greek deities such as Zeus, Athena and Dionysos are the main subjects of the sculptural representations. Bronze arms and armour, gold jewellery and fine metalwork illustrate the high level of Greek craftsmanship. The elaborate artistry seen in the collection of precious coins can equal and sometimes surpass works of art of a much larger scale. The coin collection also traces the history of Western coinage from the 6th to the 1st century BC.

Tucked in the back of the gallery is a small annex devoted to public and political life in Athens during the second half of the 5th century BC—the city’s Golden Age. Among the objects on display are a plaster cast from the Parthenon; a reconstruction of part of the coffered ceiling from the Propylaea, the monumental entrance to the sacred area of the Athenian Acropolis; a model of the Acropolis as it appeared about 400 BC; and a model of the Athena Parthenos, the gold and ivory cult statue in the Parthenon.

The Gallery of Greece complements the Gallery of the Bronze Age Aegean and the A.G. Leventis Foundation Gallery of Ancient Cyprus.