Antikenmuseum der Universität Leipzig

Special exhibition ‘ANTIQUITY BENEATH THE SKIN’ 

Our new special exhibition ‘ANTIQUITY BENEATH THE SKIN’ opens on the 8. October 2024.

We look forward to welcoming you to the exhibition from the 9. October 2024 to the 23. February 2025! 

ANTIQUITY BENEATH THE SKIN – AN INTRODUCTION

In the present day, bodies bearing tattoos are part of our everyday surroundings. Both the decision to get a tattoo as well as the chosen motif are seen as an expres­sion of extreme individualism. In Greek and Roman Antiquity, by contrast, such markings made upon the body served primarily as signifiers of social or cultural differences. 

Yet what happens when motifs from long vanished ancient societies suddenly ap­pear in twenty-first century tattoo designs? This phenomenon is the starting point for the exhibition. Here, we survey contemporary tattoos using pictorial motifs from the ancient Mediterranean. Particular focus is laid upon representations of statues, which can be considered the central form of cultural expression in the ancient Greek and Roman world. In the first section, we examine ancient motifs in tattoos. The second section reviews ancient tattooing practices in Egypt, Greece and Rome. The third and final section brings these two elements together, pairing contemporary tattoo motifs with their templates in the form of ancient statues and busts.

Antikenmuseum

The Antikenmuseum (Museum of Antiquities) was founded in 1840, making it one of the oldest and most important collections of Greek and Roman antiquities at German universities. After an eventful history, it has been exhibiting painted ceramics, marble sculptures, terracotta figures and clay reliefs, bronze statuettes and utensils, clay lamps and glassware from the ancient Mediterranean region in its teaching and study collection in the Alte Nikolaischule, which is open to the public, since 1994. In addition to the sculpture collection of the Dresden State Art Collections, it is now Saxony´s only museum that focuses comprehensively on Greco-Roman antiquity. 

An overview of the materials that have survived from various regions of the ancient Mediterranean forms the starting point for the exhibition. Several examples are used to provide an insight into the scientific analysis methods used to examine ancient materials.

In the approximately 450 objects on display, aspects such as ancient mythology or different burial customs, e.g. in clay sarcophagi but also underneath marble stelae, through to exuberant excerpts of ancient life in the form of scenes from the feast are thematized. While the oldest finds from the Schliemann excavations at Troy belong to the so-called Bronze Age, the period of the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC, the latest finds date to the Roman imperial period of the 4th century AD. The museum thus brings together legacies from well over 3000 years of human history. The holdings of Greek ceramics, which were produced in Athens and became a real export hit throughout the entire Mediterranean region in the years 600-400, are particularly rich. The development of its forms and decoration is shown from its beginnings to its heyday. The extensive, but not exhibited, collection of casts of ancient statues is represented by at least one object. In addition to marble heads and sculptures from the Roman Empire, a particular highlight of the visit is not an antique object, but a model of a house made by the British architect Nicholas Wood and donated to the museum. It shows the famous ´House of the Tragic Poet´ from a 19th-century novel, with a mosaic on the doorstep warning those entering about the dog.

A new addition to the permanent exhibition is a tour for the visually impaired and blind, for whom antiquity is literally “within reach” at specially marked red stations. Like other exhibitions, this is the result of the work of students, whose commitment contributes to the continuing vitality of the site.

The cultures of the Greeks and Romans are brought to life in exhibitions, guided tours for school classes and visitor groups. The museum also regularly hosts seminars and tutorials for archaeology students at Leipzig University.

Opening hours:
Wednesday - Friday 11:00 - 16:00
Saturday - Sunday 12:00 - 17:00
Closed during public holidays.