World famous for the now-gone Colossus—one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World—and the Knights of Saint John in the Middle Ages, Rhodes was a pivotal trading hub between the Aegean and the East since ancient times.
The artworks brought to this exhibition essentially from the museums of Rhodes and Copenhagen, as well as the Louvre and the British Museum, recall the exceptional richness of Rhodian archeology between the 14th and 6th centuries BC (from the Bronze Age to the Archaic period). It portrays the early and uninterrupted history of excavations by French, English, Danish, Italian and Greek archaeologists.
The exhibition highlights the cultural mix of Rhodes, a land of trade in the Eastern Mediterranean. It also provides an opportunity to rediscover the Orientalist nature of Rhodian art through some of its most spectacular productions, particularly its gold and silver works, unique to Greece, and its faience with ties to Egypt and the Levant.
Organized by:
Anne Coulié, Musée du Louvre, and Melina Filimonos-Tsopotou, 22nd Ephorate of Antiquities, Rhodes