Ancient Art From Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection

by Vassos Karageorghis

A Metropolitan Museum of Art Publication The most important collection of Cypriot antiquities outside Cyprus is the Cesnola Collection at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, assembled by Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the first director of the museum. Cesnola was a Civil War veteran who went to Cyprus in 1866 and, in excavations there, sought to rival the finds of Heinrich Schliemann at Troy. Now, on the occasion of the redesign of the Metropolitan's Cypriot galleries, comes this gorgeously illustrated catalogue of some 500 objects, ranging from glass, stone sculpture, and terra-cotta figurines to lamps, pottery, and jewelry. The Cesnola Collection includes works that are among the finest examples of Cypriot art from the prehistoric, Archaic, Classical/Hellenistic, and Roman periods. The first scholarly catalogue since 1914 of a large selection from the Cesnola Collection, this volume will be an invaluable reference.

Genres: History

400 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2000

Reviews

[Alex Klenin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating guide to a collection of Cypriot art. The life of a Luigi de Cesnola, the collection's gatherer is worthy of a separate book though he were a man from it's time and his methods seems a bit barbaric from the present days.

Pros: Vassos Karageorghis, the author of the book, is not only deeply understands his subject and gives links to many scientific works on every object, but also tells interesting information, give the context and interpretations for a particular items. Contains lots of high-quality photographs from the Met museum.

Cons: too much of a prehistoric period ceramics and too little of other early artifacts. Almost no weapons. The book layout was made for print and one shall scroll a lot to attribute text and photos. It's almost unbearable to read it on the screen: either smartphone, e-book, laptop or desktop, I tried it all.