The Michael C. Carlos Museum

A Profile by Gail S. Myhre

The Michael C. Carlos Museum, located on the campus of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, is home to a wonderfully well endowed collection of classical Greek and Roman art as well as smaller but important collections of ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern, Mesoamerican, sub-Saharan African and Asian art. Though this range may seem ambitious, the collections are carefully curated, making the museum a joy to visit.



Attributed to the Dinos Painter
Calyx Krater with the death of Aktaion
Ceramic
Greek, Attic, ca. 430 B.C.
The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta
© Michael C. Carlos Museum


The original section of the museum, founded as the Emory University Museum, is housed in a 1916 Beaux Arts building listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Its interior was renovated in 1985 by Michael Graves. He returned in 1993 to design the museum's expansion, enabling the display of the permanent collection in 29 galleries and making possible larger temporary and traveling exhibitions. The museum was renamed the Michael C. Carlos Museum at the groundbreaking of this expansion.

The museum is a teaching institution on many levels, offering internships for Emory University students and staff courses for teachers in grades K through 12. It also maintains art, history and archaeology outreach programs to community classrooms.

Collections compare quite favorably with those of much larger urban museums. The Carlos Collection of Ancient Art in particular contains nearly 100 objects dating from the 8th century B.C. to the 2nd century A.D., and is the most extensive single portion of the museum's permanent collections.


Tiberius Julius Caesar Augustus
Roman, ca. 14 A.D.
Parian Marble
The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta
© Michael C. Carlos Museum


The collection of classical Greek and Roman art is contained in a series of small rooms radiating from a central gallery. This arrangement showcases the more monumental pieces in open areas, while more intimate spaces focus attention on groups of smaller works. These include a fine collection of calyx krater (vases stylized in the shape of calyx flowers used to mix wine and water) and kantharos (a two-handled drinking vessel) fragments as well as a complete calyx krater, and a collection of Roman funerary urns. Works of Roman decorative art echo grander pieces seen at exhibitions from Pompeii, while a small collection of Etruscan art shows the strong eastern influences upon this early Italian civilization.

In the center of the main gallery of this collection stands a famous bust of the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C. – 37 A.D., Emperor 14 – 37 A.D.), possibly one of the finest examples of Roman portrait sculpture in existence. Captioning for this piece includes a description of Tiberius by Suetonius (69 A.D. – after 130 A.D.), providing contemporary context. The collection also contains the four foot tall circular marble Lansdowne Altar, depicting scenes of Bacchic worship, which dates from the 1st century B.C. to the 1st century A.D., and was probably carved in Rome during the reign of the Emperor Augustus (63 B.C – 14 A.D., Emperor 27 B.C. – 14 A.D.).


Coffin, Coffin Board and Mummy of Tahat
Egypt, 21st Dynasty, ca. 1070–946 B.C.
Painted wood, linen and human remains
The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta
© Michael C. Carlos Museum


The ancient Egyptian, Nubian and Near Eastern galleries are especially striking and beautifully showcase an excellent collection of the art of this place and period, the finest in the region. Perhaps the most dramatic objects from this collection are ten magnificently decorated Egyptian wood coffins, displayed to good effect at table height and accessible to close viewing. Additional treasures include a sculpture of Tutankhamun as a child, canopic jars, jewelry and amulets, and sculpture. Again, side galleries are used to show groupings of smaller objects in an appropriate setting.

The MCC's collection of Art of the Ancient Americas contains over five hundred works from ancient Mexico, Central America and the Andes, including examples of Costa Rican pottery, Mayan painting, and pre-Colombian bowls and statuary. Some of these have been grouped thematically according to the animal depicted, so we find individual cases containing birds, fish, or cats rendered in many different media. The smaller gallery rooms in which these objects are shown are intimate and do not overwhelm. In places throughout these galleries maps are printed onto the floor depicting the region in which these arts have originated - a helpful contextual clue and an interesting decorative element.


Vessel in the form of a Jaguar
Central America, Costa Rica, Guanacaste-Nicoya, Pataky, Period VI, 1000–1550 A.D.
Polychrome ceramic
30.2 X 22.2 cm. diameter
The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta
© Michael C. Carlos Museum


The MCC has a small collection of Asian art with some important pieces primarily originating in India and the Himalayas. Especially featured are a rare cosmic form of eighteen-armed Vishnu from India, and a majestic seated Buddha from the late 1st century A.D.

The diversity of sub-Saharan Africa is celebrated in a collection which focuses primarily on the art, weapons and textiles of West and Central Africa. Among the more fascinating pieces is a Mande hunter's jacket decorated with animal claws and tusks, designed to give the wearer the strength of the creatures from which they were taken. The museum is also justly proud of a late 19th century A.D. bowl-carrier figure from Cameroon, completely covered in blue bugle beads.


Beaded Bowl Figure
Cameroon, Grassfields, Kom, Laikom, ca. 1900 A.D.
Wood, beads
70.6 X 35.3 X 30.5 cm
The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta
© Michael C. Carlos Museum


The museum's main audio tour is worth taking, giving detailed background to a selection of especially important pieces and including quotes from the curators of the permanent galleries. If you choose not to avail yourself of this, object and gallery captioning is scholarly yet accessible, and provides more than adequate context for the works exhibited.

This is a charming regional museum with a wonderful depth of focus on the periods in which it has chosen to specialize. Though perhaps overshadowed somewhat by the larger (and wealthier) High Museum across town, the MCC is a fine institution in its own right and well worth a visit.


Lansdowne Altar
Roman Augustan, 1st Century B.C.-1st Century A.D.
Marble
The Michael C. Carlos Museum, Atlanta
© Michael C. Carlos Museum


The Michael C. Carlos Museum is located at 571 S. Kilgo Circle, Atlanta GA 30322, on the Quadrangle of Emory University. Telephone: 404-727-4282; fax: 404-727-4292; website . The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.; Sunday noon to 6 P.M.; closed Mondays and University holidays. Admission is a suggested donation of $7; free admission to Carlos Museum members and Emory University students, faculty and staff. Audio tours are available at the first floor reception desk for a fee of $3, or free to members. Free docent-led tours depart from the Level One Rotunda every Sunday at 2:30 P.M. during the academic year, and are available to groups of ten or more by appointment. Parking is available in the Fishburne deck on campus.

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From your Guide: Gail S. Myhre, Correspondent for Museums and Special Exhibitions, is a specialist in Roman art and history who also appreciates a wide variety of Modernist movements. You may read all of her Special Exhibition Reviews here.