Michael C. Carlos Museum

Attributed to the Dinos Painter Calyx Krater with the Death of Aktaion Greek, Attic, ca. 430 B.C. Ceramic © Michael C. Carlos Museum

Coffin of Tahat Egyptian, Dynasty XXI, ca. 1070-946 B.C. Painted wood, linen and human remains © Michael C. Carlos Museum

Lansdowne Altar Roman Augustan, 1st Century B.C. -1st Century A.D. Marble © Michael C. Carlos Museum

Vessel in the Form of a Jaguar Central America, Costa Rica, Guanacaste-Nicoya, Pataky Period VI, 1000-1550 A.D. Polychrome ceramic © Michael C. Carlos Museum

Beaded Bowl Figure Cameroon, Grassfields, Kom, Laikom, ca. 1900 A.D. Wood and beads © Michael C. Carlos Museum

A Profile by GAIL S. MYHRE

July 30, 2009

The Michael C. Carlos Museum, located on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, is home to a wonderfully endowed collection of classical Greek and Roman art as well as smaller but important holdings in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern, Mesoamerican, sub-Saharan African and Asian art. Though this range may seem ambitious, these thematic groups are carefully curated, making the museum a joy to visit.

The original section of the MCC, founded as the Emory University Museum, is housed in a 1916 Beaux Arts building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its interior was renovated in 1985 by Michael Graves. He returned in 1993 to design the museum's expansion, enabling the display of the permanent collection in 29 galleries and making possible larger temporary and traveling exhibitions. The institution was renamed the Michael C. Carlos Museum at the groundbreaking of this expansion.

The museum’s collections compare quite favorably with those of much larger urban museums. In particular, the Carlos Collection of Ancient Art contains nearly 100 objects dating from the 8th Century B.C. to the 2nd Century A.D. and is the single most extensive portion of the museum's permanent works on display.

 

Greek and Roman Art
This portion of the MCC’s holdings is exhibited in a series of small rooms radiating from a central gallery. The arrangement showcases monumental pieces in open areas; more intimate spaces focus attention on groups of smaller works. These include a fine selection of calyx kraters (vases stylized in the shape of calyx flowers that were used to mix wine and water) and kantharos (two-handled drinking vessel) fragments. One complete calyx krater is on view. Wall niches house Roman funerary urns. Works of Roman decorative art echo grander pieces seen at exhibitions of antiquities from Pompeii, while a small grouping of Etruscan art shows the strong Eastern influences upon this early Italian civilization.

 

In the middle of the central gallery stands a famous bust of the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C.-37 A.D., Emperor 14-37 A.D.), possibly one of the finest examples of Roman portrait sculpture in existence. Captioning for this piece includes a description of the ruler by Suetonius (69 A.D.-after 130 A.D.), providing contemporary context. The collection also contains the four-foot-tall circular marble Lansdowne Altar. Adorned with scenes of Bacchic worship, the work dates from the 1st Century B.C. to the 1st Century A.D. and was probably carved in Rome during the reign of Augustus (63 B.C.-14 A.D., Emperor 27 B.C.-14 A.D.).

 

The Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern Collection

These galleries are especially striking and beautifully showcase an excellent collection of the ancient art from this region, the finest in the American Southeast. Perhaps the most dramatic objects exhibited are 10 magnificently decorated Egyptian wood coffins, displayed to good effect at table height and accessible for close viewing. Additional treasures include a sculpture of Pharaoh Tutankhamun as a child, canopic jars, jewelry, amulets and statuary. Again, side galleries are used to display groupings of smaller artifacts in an appropriate setting.

 

Ancient American Art

The MCC’s Art of the Ancient Americas Collection contains over 500 works from Mexico, Central America and the Andes, including examples of Costa Rican pottery and Mayan painting as well as pre-Colombian bowls and statuary. Some of these objects are arranged thematically and according to the animal depicted. So we find individual cases containing birds, fish or cats rendered in many different media. The smaller intimate rooms in which these objects are shown do not overwhelm. In various places, maps stenciled onto the floor illustrate the regions from where these works are derived, a helpful contextual clue and an interesting decorative element.

 

The Asian and African Collections

The MCC has a small selection of Asian art. Some important pieces come primarily from India and the Himalayas. Notable are a rare cosmic form of 18-armed Vishnu from India and a majestic seated Buddha from the late 1st Century A.D.

The cultural diversity of sub-Saharan Africa is celebrated in a collection that focuses primarily on the art, weapons and textiles of the continent’s western and central regions. Among the more fascinating pieces is a Mande hunter's jacket decorated with animal claws and tusks, designed to give the wearer the strength of the creatures from which they were taken. The museum is also justly proud of a late 19th-century A.D. bowl-carrier figure from Cameroon, completely covered in blue bugle beads.

 

Works on Paper

The MCC’s collection of works of art on paper contains over 4,000 prints, drawings and photographs, including Renaissance and Baroque engravings and etchings by such European masters as Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528) and Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669).

 

Museum Facilities

The museum's main audio tour is worth taking. It gives detailed background to a selection of especially important pieces and includes quotes from the MCC’s curators, many of whom teach at Emory University. If you choose not to avail yourself of this, object and gallery captioning, scholarly yet accessible, provides more than adequate context for the works exhibited. A second recorded tour describes many of the museum’s objects in relation to Biblical texts. Docent-led tours are also available on a weekly basis. Groups may visit by appointment.

The MCC is a teaching institution on many levels, offering internships for Emory University students and staff courses for teachers of grades K through 12. It also maintains art, history and archaeology outreach programs to community classrooms.

The Michael C. Carlos Museum is a charming regional collection of art with a wonderful depth of focus on the civilizations and periods in which it has chosen to specialize. Though perhaps overshadowed by the larger (and wealthier) High Museum of Art across town, the MCC is a fine institution in its own right and well worth a visit.

 

 

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