Museum Essay #1

The two pieces of artwork are “Madagascar Couple” by a Sakalava artist in western Madagascar and “Statue of Dionysos leaning on a female figure (“Hope Dionysos”) by Italian sculptor Vincenzo Pacetti. When looking up the name “Dionysos” I noticed that it was spelled differently in other sites, such as replacing the o with a u to spell out Dionysus. These two pieces are both sculptures with more then 500 years apart and were created from different parts of the world. In the image of the “Statue of Dionysos leaning on a female figure” the head of the statue is actually the ancient piece that was then restored to fit the rest of the body. This statue is a roman copy of the Greek original of the 4^th century B.C. It is said that Dionysos was the “god of wine and divine intoxication” as well as the god of epiphany. The god Dionysos was a popular figure in Greek mythology and religion and was highly worshiped. The female figure is said to either be “added to support the outstretched arm and may represent Spes, a Roman personification of Hope, who was commonly shown as an archaistic maiden.” This is a marble sculpture that you are able to walk around it and see all the details that the artist would want you to see and is idealized, to believe that is what the god would have looked like. Dionysos looks a lot bigger then the other statue he seems to be leaning on. Which makes the on looker to focus on him more.The “Madagascar Couple” was said to be an achievement of a region where African and Pacific Island influences meet, in the late 17^th-18^th centuries. Unlike the Greek statue, this sculpture is wooden and you are able to see the wood pieces around the piece, as well as it being more abstract. The history of this artwork is that it would be set in a place near a house where prayers, sacrifices, and boys circumcision ceremonies would take place; also, this statue is nude. Nudity symbolizes fertility and regeneration, as well as, “the male-female partnership in assuring the community’s future.” Both of the statues represent unity in which they have one male and one female each representing something different but making the statue look like a whole. Also, they both have a big representation among the people during their time that looked up to them in need and believed in both statues. The reason why I chose these two artworks is because; they have a big difference in years as well as in culture and they have both lasted all these years.