Sole surviving ancient Greek funerary relief of twin babies unveiled

The National Archaeological Museum of Athens has unveiled a fragment of a funerary stele that is the only surviving carving of a pair of twin babies in arms from ancient Greece. The marble infants cradled in a pair of female hands date to the 4th century B.C. and were likely part of a tomb marker of a woman who died in childbirth.

The “stele of the twin babies” was discovered in a stream in Menidi, a municipality a few miles north of downtown Athens, by a shell collector in 2008. He swaddled the marble infants in an old cloth and brought them to the National Archaeological Museum. They have now gone on display as part of the museum’s Unseen Museum initiative. The exhibition puts the spotlight on objects in the museum’s vaults, pulling antiquities out of storage and in front of the public for the first time.

The heads of the twins are standing out from their swaddling clothes and the mother’s hands are seen holding their little bodies next to each other. […]

This is the only surviving funerary relief of the ancient Greek world depicting twin babies in the same arms, which indicates their common fate as orphans, the museum says in a statement.

The museum published a collage image of the stele of the twin babies with the relief of Philonoe, suggesting a reconstructed image of what the tombstone might have looked like as a whole.

The stele of the twin babies went on display Thursday, March 21st, and will be in the museum’s Altar Hall through Monday, May 13th. On eight days during the course of the exhibition, museum archaeologists will share the history of the stele of the twin babies, its discovery, its context, the significance of twins in Greek mythology and the lives and deaths of children in ancient Greece.

Rare medieval belt loop found in Poland

A rare medieval belt loop used to hang keys or a purse has been discovered near Kamień Pomorski in northwestern Poland. It is one of only about 15 of this type of belt loop known, and the only one of them found in Poland. It was discovered by metal detectorist Damian Tomczyk scanning the area with the approval of local heritage authorities.

The bronze figure is 2.2 inches high and depicts an anthropomorphic figure with hands on hips forming circular divots on the side of the torso. Diagonal, horizontal and vertical cuts on the surface of the chest and waist convey the draping of a tunic typical of the Late Gothic period. A triangular cutout separates the two legs that appear to be clad in hose. The figure stands on a rounded shape with a hole where keys or an alms purse or pouch would have hung. A belt would be threaded through an open rectangular mount on the back.

This type of belt loop was produced in southern Germany, created by Bavarian craftsmen probably in Nuremberg which was a center of bronze work since the 14th century. Indeed, of the surviving examples, 12 of them were found in Germany, most of them in Bavaria.

The finder has donated the artifact to the Kamień Land History Museum which has two late medieval bronze belt loops in its collection, one of them with the similar cross-hatched garment and arm holes. This newly-discovered example is larger and in better condition.

Bodleian acquires rare Bach manuscript

Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685–1750 Cantata 'Auf Christi Himmelfahrt allein', BWV 128 [1725]. Photo courtesy the Bodleian Libraries.The University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries have acquired a rare autograph manuscript by German Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach. One of only four manuscripts in the UK written in Bach’s hand, the document was accepted by the government in lieu of £3.65 million in inheritance taxes.

Also known as the Kohn manuscript after collector Sir Ralph Kohn who fled Nazi Germany for England in 1940, the 16-page manuscript is Bach’s composition of his cantata for the feast of the Ascension Day, May 10, 1725: “Auf Christi Himmelfahrt Allein.” This is the only surviving working manuscript of this cantata and it is the complete score. The music would not be printed until 1878.

Kohn had previously loaned the manuscript for exhibition at Buckingham Palace in the early 2000s. He died in 2016 and his widow Zahava inherited his collection. She has now passed away as well and her heirs paid the tax bill with the manuscript.

The short, festive cantata, which lasts less than 20 minutes in performance, is scored for two horns, three different types of oboe, trumpet, strings and continuo, with four-part chorus, and alto, tenor and bass soloists. Its five movements comprise a celebratory opening chorus, a short recitative and aria for bass voice, a duet for alto and tenor, ending with a simple chorale. The music for this cantata was all new, which is relatively unusual for Bach who frequently recycled and adapted movements from his other compositions. The music for many of his cantatas has not survived at all.

The manuscript comprises four large-format bifolia (16 pages), handwritten by the composer himself in brown and black ink. The title is written above the first page of music: ‘Festo Ascensionis Xsti, Auff Christi Himmelfahrt allein’, preceded by Bach’s personal epigraph ‘J.J.’, which stands for ‘Jesu Juva’ (‘Jesus, Help’). This is Bach’s composing score, a working document in which the composer made many corrections and revisions, especially in the opening chorus. The manuscript also contains some annotations by Bach’s eldest son, Wilhelm Friedemann, and a few faint pencil marks made by the printers as they prepared the work for its first publication in 1878.

As Cantor of the Thomasschule in Leipzig, Bach was expected to compose a new cantata for practically every Sunday of the church year, as well as special festivals like Ascension Day. Much of the writing betrays signs of great haste: for example, bar lines straggle down pages and there is little attempt to maintain the vertical alignment of the different parts. It is also interesting to see how Bach achieves his alterations by a variety of means: sometimes by scratching out the text with a pin, or simply by crossing through with his pen. The smudges made accidentally by his hand or sleeve before the ink was dry add a personal touch to the manuscript. Occasionally, where Bach has deleted notes or passages and heavily gone over various sections with his pen, the acidic ink has eroded the paper. This is unfortunately a common problem with the surviving Bach autographs, but this example is better than most, presenting fairly limited signs of erosion.

Characteristically, Bach does his best to condense the maximum amount of music into the minimum space, keen to avoid wasting valuable paper wherever possible. Every corner of the page is filled, the music flowing right to the edge. The dramatic immediacy on the page and the evident haste in which the composer wrote down his music, impart a sense of urgency and creative energy to Bach’s scores, which are often extremely beautiful in their own right. This manuscript is no exception.

The Kohn manuscript went on display March 15th in the Weston Library’s Treasury as part of the Write, Cut, Rewrite exhibition which runs through January 5, 2025. The full manuscript has been digitized and uploaded to the library’s online collection, Digital Bodleian. A performance of the work to celebrate the 300th anniversary of its first performance in 1725 is being planned.

Roman marble bust found under Burghley parking lot

Craig Crawley with the head of the sculpture. A Roman marble sculpture of the head of a woman has been discovered during construction in the parking lot of Burghley House, the stately home near Stamford in Lincolnshire built by the Cecil family in the 16th century. The head of a sculpture was unearthed by mechanical digger operator Craig Crawley in April of 2023. Two weeks later the marble bust the head used to be attached to was found.

After being cleaned, experts dated the sculpture from the First or Second Century, with an iron dowel added later, allowing it to be attached to a bust or pedestal.

This type of adaptation was often carried out by Italian dealers in antiquities during the late 18th Century to make excavated ancient fragments more attractive to aristocrats travelling in Italy on what was known as the Grand Tour.

It is believed that it was during one of the ninth Earl’s two tours to Italy in the 1760s, when he purchased many antiquities, that he brought the sculpture back to Burghley.

Nobody knows how the head escaped from the house and would up buried where the car park was later built. The two parts were examined by the curator of Burghley’s collection and then transferred to a professional conservator for cleaning and reassembly.

The head and the bust have now been conserved and reassembled. The sculpture will be on display on the dramatic Hell Staircase (named after the Baroque inferno painted on the walls and ceiling by Antonio Verrio in the 1690s) at Burghley House when it reopens for the season on March 16th. It will join other sculptures acquired by the ninth Earl during his travels.

Rijksmuseum acquires only signed painting by Gesina ter Borch

The Rijksmuseum has acquired the only signed oil painting by Gesina ter Borch, a draftsman and watercolorist of the Dutch Golden Age and a member of one of the most prominent artistic families in the 17th century Netherlands. A posthumous portrait of her youngest brother as a child, the painting is a rare testimonial to her skills with oils on canvas as well as to her family bonds.

Art was very much the business of two generations of the Ter Borch family. Gesina’s father Gerard ter Borch the Elder was a painter who had practiced successfully in Rome for many years. He taught his eldest son Gerard who would go on to even greater success as portraitist for the aristocracy of Europe and creator of genre paintings that inspired Golden Age luminaries like Johannes Vermeer. The father also taught his younger son Harmen ter Borch, his daughter Gesina and his youngest son Moses.

Moses’ promising artistic career was cut short when he joined the Dutch Navy in 1664 when he was just 19. He fought against the British in the Second Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667) and died from injuries sustained in the failed Dutch attack on Harwich in June 1667.

Gesina’s medium was primarily drawing, but she frequently posed as a model for her brothers’ paintings, and her brothers were frequent subjects in her own work. She was also the family’s most dedicated archivist, keeping all of the artworks still in their hands together in a single collection. The Netherlands bought this family patrimony in 1886 and it is now in the permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum, including three albums containing Gesina’s drawings, many of them featuring upper class subjects in scenes of daily life, plus poems, collages, drawings and self-portraits by her brothers.

Moses ter Borch was the apple of his family’s eye, and his sister Gesina lovingly depicted him wearing a dress with a white apron, and a hat with feathers that contrast sharply with the dark background. He is carrying a drum and holding drumsticks. Next to him stands a toy horse on wheels, against which leans an orange pennant. A whip, several musical instruments and a sword are shown lying on the floor. The toys are references to his later life as a soldier. The artist inscribed the year 1647 on the portrait, but she almost certainly painted it 20 years later, following Moses’ death.

The only other oil painting strongly attributed to her was a collaboration with her famous brother Gerard, but the only signature is Gerard’s. It too was a posthumous portrait of their beloved little brother Moses and it too is housed in the Rijksmuseum. Moses is older in that portrait, dressed in his military uniform at the age when he enlisted.