| Exhibition Dates: |
June 1, 2020–February 14, 2021
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| Exhibition Location: |
The Met Fifth Avenue, Greek and Roman Mezzanine, Gallery 172
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A masterwork of Roman sculpture—an impressive marble wellhead (or puteal) of the second century A.D.—is the focus of the exhibition The Gosford Wellhead: An Ancient Roman Masterpiece, opening June 1, 2020, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The exhibition was organized in conjunction with the Museum’s 150th anniversary. The wellhead was recently acquired and conserved by The Met. Some two dozen related works of art, primarily from The Met collection—an Archaic Greek bronze statuette, Classical engraved gem and red-figure terracotta vase; Roman sculpture in marble and bronze; European paintings and etchings; and an early Italian edition of Ovid’s Metamorphoses printed in 1501—will also be displayed along with several important loans.
The exhibition is made possible by The Vlachos Family Fund.
The wellhead was excavated in the Roman port of Ostia in 1797 under the direction of the Irish painter and antiquarian Robert Fagan (1761–1816) in one of the last private excavations on papal lands. At the time of its discovery, the wellhead was celebrated as one of the most beautiful Roman sculptures of its kind. Fagan secured an export license from the Vatican to send it to England in 1801. Its publication by the Italian scholar Giuseppe Guattani in 1805, illustrated with detailed drawings, announced its existence to the scholarly world. In subsequent decades, its location became unknown to scholars. Acquired by the Eighth Earl of Wemyss before 1853, it resided at Gosford House in Scotland for generations before its acquisition by The Met in 2019.
The exhibition will consider such topics as: virtuoso Roman sculpture; Roman adaptation of Greek art and mythology; Greek and Latin literature; early excavations of Rome and its port; restoration of antiquities in the late 18th century; the Grand Tour and antiquities collecting in Britain in the late 18th and 19th centuries; and the rediscovery of a masterpiece that was lost to scholars for centuries.
Among the highlight loans to the exhibition are three outstanding works of art from the collection of the Earl of Wemyss and March. Two antiquities—a monumental marble eagle and its altar base and an exceptional marble candelabrum—suggest the rich collecting history of the Earls of Wemyss and March and, more generally, the history of collecting antiquities in Great Britain. A portrait by John Singer Sargent of Francis Charteris, 10th Earl of Wemyss (1818–1914), gives an impression of this noble family. In addition, from the Hunt Museum (Limerick, Ireland), there will be a self-portrait by Robert Fagan, the man who excavated the wellhead, as he looked at the time of the excavation.
The ancient sculptor who masterfully carved the wellhead from a single block of marble effectively transformed a utilitarian object into a luxury piece of the highest order. Featuring two cautionary tales about water from Greek mythology, the narrative relief seamlessly combines the legend of Narcissus and Echo with the tragic story of the abduction of Hylas by nymphs. Only about 70 Roman marble wellheads with relief decoration are known today, and The Met’s is one of the finest and the only one whose iconography relates so directly to water.
Narcissus and Echo are probably best known to the modern public from the description in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the story, a spurned lover of Narcissus curses him to love himself as he has been loved—that is, to love without obtaining his beloved. While on a hunt, Narcissus sees his own face reflected in the water and is smitten. The wellhead’s image of Narcissus is particularly dramatic: We see him entranced by his own reflection, his long locks of hair flowing in the rushing water, while Echo sits behind him, hopelessly in love. In the Argonautica, an epic poem by Apollonios of Rhodes, the handsome hero Hylas is fetching water when he disturbs the dance of water nymphs. One of them—lovestruck—pulls him into the water, and he disappears. The same story appears in Roman Imperial wall painting, where, as here, several nymphs are typically involved. The composition on the wellhead may stem from a famous, now-lost Hellenistic painting.
The exhibition is organized by Seán Hemingway, John A. and Carole O. Moran Curator in Charge, Department of Greek and Roman Art.
The exhibition will be featured on the Museum’s website, and on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
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February 3, 2020
Image: Puteal (wellhead) with Narcissus and Echo, and Hylas and the Nymphs. Antonine or Severan, A.D. 150–200. Marble, H. 41 in. (104 cm) including base, Diam. 26 3/8 in. (67 cm). Excavated in 1797 in Ostia, the ancient port of Rome. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace, Howard S. and Nancy Marks, Mr. and Mrs. Ronald S. Lauder, The Jaharis Family Foundation Inc., Philodoroi, Leon Levy Foundation, Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Moran, Mr. and Mrs. Mark Fisch, Annette de la Renta, Beatrice Stern, Frederick J. Iseman, The Abner Rosen Foundation Inc., Mr. and Mrs. Richard L. Chilton Jr., Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Barbara G. Fleischman, in memory of Lawrence A. Fleischman, and Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation Gifts; and The Bothmer Purchase and Diane Carol Brandt Funds, 2019 (2019.7). Image: © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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