Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Sept. 19, 2003 – August 25, 2005
The CRMA is best known for its extensive collection of works by its two native sons: Regionalist artists Grant Wood and Marvin Cone. Art in Roman Life: Villa to Grave, however, presents its lesser-known but impressive collection of Roman sculptural busts, donated to the museum in 1996 by Cedar Rapids collectors Tom and Nan Riley. In order to create a broad art historical context in which to consider these works, the only antiquities in the collection, Villa to Grave presents a new installation of these twenty-one sculptures side by side with more than 200 Etruscan and Roman objects. Sculpture, architectural fragments, frescoes, coins, and decorative arts, borrowed from some of the best classical collections in the United States, set an exciting stage from which to consider the Riley collection, works which date from the first century B.C. to the third century A.D.
Terrarum dea gentiumque, Roma
Cui par est nihil et nihil secundum.
Goddess of continents and peoples, O Rome,
Whom nothing can equal and nothing approach.
--Martial, Epigrams XII 8, 1-2.
The first section of Villa to Grave features the Riley imperial busts in a public and honorific setting, introducing the political sphere of Roman life. The second section, the major focus of the exhibition, leads the visitor into the domestic realm through the rooms of an ancient Roman villa or townhouse—atrium, hortus (garden), tablinum (reception room/office), cubiculum (bedroom), triclinium (dining room) and culina (kitchen)—that includes objects associated with these areas. The exhibition concludes with a recreated Roman tomb containing Etruscan cinerary urns, Roman sarcophagi, and funerary sculpture. Conceptually the portraits populate the villa, bringing a human dimension to the domestic objects, such as jewelry, furniture, tableware, and cooking utensils. These objects bring the portraits to life, emphasizing the quotidian life of the individuals who commissioned them. The funerary section, with its reclining benches and banqueting objects, draws attention to the Romans belief in an afterlife and ancestor worship.
In 2001 the CRMA received a Museum Loan Network grant to investigate the possibility of extensive loans from the Detroit Institute of Arts, Toledo Museum of Art, and the Field Museum of Natural History. In 2002, two further grants from MLN, one towards the exhibition and the other for a visiting composer, helped us to secure sizeable loans from these museums as well as select works from the J. Paul Getty Museum, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, Classics Department at the University of Iowa, and private collectors. The Museums, Composers and Communities grant from the MLN and administered by the American Composers Forum, Minneapolis, allowed us to select a resident composer to produce two compositions inspired by the objects and ideas present in Villa to Grave. In 2004 these works will premiere in our triclinium gallery with performances by the Red Cedar Chamber Music and the Cedar Rapids Symphony, and the recorded music will be integrated into the exhibition. Additional grants from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and Humanities Iowa, as well as major gifts from private and corporate sponsors in Cedar Rapids allowed us to realize the exhibition and related educational programs. Without the expertise, talent and support of numerous individuals and businesses, Rome in Cedar Rapids would not have been possible. Our small museum staff, together with the many scholars, artists, and volunteers who helped to build the villa, should be commended for their imagination and dedication.
Jane Milosch, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions