A week ago we wrote about the Valle dei Templi in Sicily’s Agrigento region.
“Would our feelings about Akragas change?” we wondered.
The same “parking assistants” we’d encountered the previous day were attending the small lot across the street from the museum. “We’re back,” Magellan said. This time our protection money covered a two-hour stay instead of two minutes.
As in most every museum we visited in Sicily, photography is allowed. In last week’s post you saw this photo of a colossal Telemon, one of the originals that supported the majestic Temple of Olympiad Zeus, and considered a highlight of this museum. It was Magellan’s favourite piece here, so let’s look at it again.
The Ephebus of Agrigento(480 BC), found in a cistern near the Temple of Demeter, is thought to represent a young man from Agrigento who won various events at Olympic games. The style is smoother and softer than the marble statues in Greece at the time and it’s said his hairstyle is distinctly Akragasian.
The museum is organized chronologically and one of the first pieces we saw was this golden cup with six bovines (7thcentury BC), which shows that indigenous Sicilians knew about and were emulating the artistry of Greek Mycenaea, a long, sail away.
These Grecian vases attracted our cameras.
Why ask art into a life at all, if not to be transformed and enlarged by its presence and mysterious means? Some hunger for more is in us – more range, more depth, more feeling, more associative freedom, more beauty.” More perplexity and more friction of interest. More prismatic grief and unstinted delight, more longing, more darkness. More saturation and permeability in knowing our own existence as also the existence of others. More capacity to be astonished.
The Romans overtook Akragas in 210 BC, renaming it Agrigentum. While this alabaster sarcophagus of a child (2nd century AD) causes you to wince in grief, looking closely, you can see it’s incised with childhood moments of happiness.
Then there’s the risqué art.
But back to beauty, in miniature. Akragas was one of only two of the Greater Greek cities in Sicily to mint its own coins. These two are silver and were worth four-drachmaes.
And look at this amazing coin created by the Romans in Agrigentum.
“Look at the time,” I said to Magellan, not realizing we’d spent more than two hours in the museum. Seeing this fine art, crafted with such a delicate touch, made us want to raise a glass and salute “Yamas!” to the Akragantines. A complete turnaround from the previous day’s walkabout among their giant-sized limestone temples, this heterotopia, this representation of their society, opened our eyes to the their artistry.
How about you—what were your impressions of Akragas? The Museum?
Here’s more info on the most visited museum in Sicily.
Gerard-Sharp, Lisa. Insight Guides Sicily.China: Apa Publications, 2016. You’ll find five pages of info on Valle dei Templi in this, the only guidebook we took to Sicily.