10,000 Drawings

SPQR Blues: Blues 3 part XCIX

The last few drawings from the 24-Hour Comics Day challenge just weren't up to snuff. I've redrawn the next rows. I don't think I'll be doing the challenge next year. Too owie. :P

Someone asked why Titus is in Herculaneum. Calatoria has mentioned now and again that the imperial brothers often take holidays in the town. She's determined to meet them....

The Greek galleries are full and nicely organised by era and theme, just as they had been before the renovation, with some interesting additions.

Much of the Roman portraiture and statuary has been moved into a hodegpodge, scattered arrangement in a single large hall—some pieces quite dramatically lit, I will grant, but with no flow or context. The overall impression the arrangment gives is that Roman civilisation consists of bits of broken marble copied from Greeks, and the statue of young Hercules over there sure would look good on a postcard on the fridge. The side rooms are sparse and just as poorly arranged, giving an overall feeling of wandering through a used-furniture showroom that's going out of business. The main hall in particular is not a strong effort, better suited to interior design for a chi-chi restaurant on a Mediterranean theme, not for the appreciation of a culture's art or for education about its history. What a fancy-schmancy mess the exhibit is.

The marvellous bust of Caligula never fails to impress, though, particularly as it is now lit to enhance the bright white glowing stone, polished and bleached by the ages, and it withstands the ludicrous commentary on the placard accompanying it. It glows amongst the more-dimly lit pieces around it, but one must weave an uneven obstacle course of random pieces to reach. Nonetheless, as a group of teenagers remarked while I was there, "He's cute."

I drew many sketches of nice jewelry, particularly earrings. I will share.