The first object that visitors see sets the tone for the whole exhibition. It is the haunting figure of a dancing boy, caught in the timeless, graceful act of a twisting body. It was created by a Greek sculptor in the 4th century BCE, and was found by fisherman working off the coast of Sicily in 1998. The curators have brought together a collection of bronzes covering an astonishing range of time and space. The chronological range span is from a Danish chariot of the sun, dated to the 14th century BCE, up to contemporary sculpture, including a Louise Bourgeois spider; the geographical from Europe, through Africa including some stunning heads from Benin, religious figures from India, and ritual vessels from China. All pieces are made out of a metal alloy of copper and tin that celebrates simultaneously the triumph of human technology and the artisanship of the caster: one astonishing figure was created specifically in order to show off the caster’s skill.
If the only purpose of the exhibition were to show technical skill it may not be of much interest; instead, combining the technology and craft with artistic genius has created objects to make your hair stand on end with their beauty. My personal favourites were a wonderfully lifelike head of King Seuthes found in Bulgaria, a strigil of great simplicity whose handle was in the form of a naked female figure, herself holding a much smaller strigil, and a collection of tiny exquisite pieces, some cast from nature and used as gold weights in West Africa. They are only personal: I would challenge anyone to have toured the exhibition and not come across something that made them gasp in wonder. But taken as a whole, the exhibition was quite simply a celebration of the human race showing both its commonality and its diversity by means of a shared language.
- © British Journal of General Practice 2013