The Old Age During the Antiquity

From February 26th to June 7th  2009 in Landesmuseum – Bonn, Germany was shown an international, thematic exhibition of historical records from the Greek and the Roman antiquity under the name “The Old Age during the Antiquity”.  The idea about that exhibition was provoked by a quote of the Greek philosopher Democritus (460 – 371 B. C.)  from Abdera, North Greece  „The bloom of the old age, but is that wisdom…”.

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The exhibition presented historical records from twelve museums in Europe – the Capitoline Museum in Rome, museums from Munich, Berlin, the Museum of Karlsruhe, museums in Switzerland, France, Greece, Bulgaria, etc.

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Vassil Bojkov Collection displayed two historical artifacts from the Roman age, presented by the Thrace Foundation. The first one was a marble statue of an old woman.  It is in natural human size and represents a tombstone of a matron that lived some two thousand years ago. The second artifact is a bronze balsamarium (a balm vessel) shaped as the head of the young Dionysus.  The cap of the vessel is shaped as the bust of the old Silenus.

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The idea about the confrontation between the youth and the old age is revealed exquisitely in the bronze balsamarium showing Dionysus as a baby and his old teacher Silenus.

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Both the old woman statue and the bronze balsamarium – Dionysus fit in an original manner to the exhibition’s theme.

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The various ancient records – statues, reliefs, Greek vases, frescoes and figures – in the exhibition disclose the versatile understanding of age in antiquity. The exhibition enjoyed great public interest. It was seen by over five hundred thousand visitors.