My Seven Wonders Artemis Tziolis My name is Artemis Tziolis and I am a senior high school student in the American Community Schools of Athens, Greece. Since a young age, I have been interested not only in art, but in the historical development of art throughout the centuries. I am enrolled in the Humanities Honors course at ACS and am also studying independently for the AP Art History course. I plan on studying History of Art combined with Arabic in university, which is why I had decided to join this class. I thought it would be a wonderful opportunity to see if I was interested enough in Art History in an academic approach to pursue further studies, and hopefully a career, in it.
ILLISOS BASILICA- 549 A.D.,BYZANTINE MUSEUM
This fragment of the Ilissos Basilica was one of the most appealing of the museum to me. The mosaic piece portrays a peacock pecking at a flower. The peacock was a secret symbol for immortality during the times when Christianity was oppressed; it is said that the flesh of peafowl does not decay after death. This interested me because the colours used (maroons, greens, golds, and reds) are very bold and harmonize well together. The peafowl’s stance is humble and bent over. It makes me think of how silenced the voice of Christianity used to be, but now it is by far the most common religion. Even though I am agnostic, I believe this mosaic fragment to be an interesting reflection on the course of the world at the time.
CLAY FISH – 4th-5th C., BYZANTINE MUSEUM One of the most fascinating statues I saw at the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Art was the hand-sized statue of a clay fish, approximated to the 4th-5th century. Carved into its side were the Greek letters of Α and Ω, with a P in between them, which also formed a cross. Being Greek, I understand the significance of these letters without further research – they are the first and last letters of the alphabet. Throughout culture and civilization, even in pop culture, the term ‘alpha and omega’ signifies the beginning and the end. The P, also forming the Christian cross, further implies what the meaning of this clay fish statue is. Above all, it is known that the fish was, like the peacock, a symbol for Christianity at a time when one didn’t expose their Christian beliefs. It intrigued me that something so simple as a clay statue of a miniature fish would hold such symbolic meaning.
RECEPTION ROOM – 17th C., ISLAMIC MUSEUM My favourite section of the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art was the Reception Room. It was so ornate, and seemed much too complex for the time it was built, in the 17th century. It’s perplexing to think that this civilization was working so elaborately hundreds of years ago. This is why it appeals so much to me. The shape of the fountain (seen in the sketch above) is beautiful and unique, and there is ornate gold design on the marble of the fountain. It reminds me a lot of my childhood in Japan where we would gather on Sundays to dine with my parents’ co-workers in what I remember to be a very traditional Japanese lounge, with a seating plan quite similar to this, and eat sitting on the floor. There is probably absolutely no relevance between the two, but it was a subtle yet pleasant reminder of my times in Japan.