|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Gods on Coins: Ancient Greece, Rome, Byzantium The exhibition at the Rotunda of the Winter Palace displays coins dating from antiquity to the middle ages from the State Hermitage Museum collection. The exhibition shows items which enable the visitor to trace the main stages of religious development of the Greeks, Romans and Byzantines, detailed in the types of coins, and the choice of gods or patron saints. Since coins are monuments of an official nature, depicting only the themes which reflected the concepts of those people who produced them, and in a time of centralized power, the ideology and politics of the rulers. Numismatic material is complemented with items of applied or fine art from ancient and mediaeval times, which demonstrate the similarities of iconographic features and the link between depictions on coins with famous and respected sculptures, icons and mosaics. The coins from Ancient Greece represent the gods of Olympia and their attributes, and also the gods who were the patrons of nature, cities, agriculture and craftsmanship. The unusual peculiarities of government in Ancient Greece which did not take a unified political form, and consisted of independent city-states (polis), was reflected in the a huge variety of iconographic types for depicting divinities. Ancient Rome joined in its pantheon of gods, the gods of other peoples who became a part of the Roman state or where near neighbours, deifying many moral concepts and virtues. They were called upon not only to provide protection for the ruler and the subjects of the empire, but to also serve in guiding the basic ideological programme of the emperors. The natural transition from mythological images to Christian themes is reflected in the coinage, which show the conversion of several pagan figures: Victory, the personification of the cities of Rome and Constantinople and the imperial eagle. Thus, for example, the goddess of victory, Victoria was slowly transformed on coins into an angel, instead of depictions of gods, scenes from the life of Christ and the Christian saints appear. With the acceptance of Christianity as the single true faith on the coins gradually Christian symbols started to appear on coins: : the chrism (the monogram of Jesus Christ made up of the Greek letters Õ and Ð), the cross and the hand of God. Christian imagery on Byzantine coins conclude the display: depictions of Christ, the Virgin in various iconographic settings; patron saints of the emperors and city patrons, initially martyrs and later, soldiers. The monetary types strictly follows the canons of the Church for the depiction of saints, which is also highlighted at the exhibition with icons and exponents of applied art. The numismatic depictions of the gods and saints are numerous and diverse. The exhibition includes only a small part of these, giving a general overview of the main pagan gods and Christian images, those which appeared on coins. The criteria for choosing the exponents was mainly their representative value, dependant on the level of skill of the ancient casters and markers, and also on the level of preservation. The State Hermitage Publishing House has prepared an illustrated, academic
catalogue for the exhibition. The author of the text is the exhibition
curator |
|
|||||
|
Copyright © 2011 State Hermitage Museum |
