Modern Poet, Ancient Artifacts in the Kelsey Museum

By Professor Artemis Leontis

What is a modern poet doing in an archaeological museum? This would be a justified reaction to the invitation to visit "Cavafy's World: Ancient Passions," an unusual exhibit on the life and work of the eminent Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy, held at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology from February 21 to August 31, 2002. Co-curator Lauren A. Talalay and I faced the task of communicating to a broad audience our answer to this question: our sense that divergent eras, materials, and sensibilities can combine in startling ways that stimulate the imagination. Carefully pairing Cavafy's poems with select artifacts, we tried to show that this particular modern poet and this wonderful museum collection are especially well suited to each other.

Some poems and objects formed obvious pairs. A set of Bactrian coins with Indic writing on one side, Greek on the other, perfectly supplemented Cavafy's poem "Coins," a thoughtful commentary of such objects. And the funerary stele dedicated in Greek to one "Ammon" matched almost too literally Cavafy's "For Ammon," a poem instructing the versifier of Greek funerary inscriptions how to address the dead Ammon.

In most cases, however, poems and artifacts met tangentially, inviting visitors to listen carefully to the dialogue that ensued between them. Here is one of my favorite examples.

Visitors will have observed a small case containing three of the Kelsey Museum's most treasured pieces: a finely crafted gold necklace with a pair of gold earrings identified as Greco-Roman and a gilded mummy portrait, all remarkably preserved. Mummy portraits have been prized since their discovery in Egypt for their expressive faces, strong presence, vivid colors, beautiful execution, and miraculous preservation. This one from Karanis, Egypt, of the 2nd century AD shows a lovely woman wearing a heavy set of gold jewelry. Next to these, the manuscript of a poem:

FOR THE SHOP
He wrapped them up carefully, neatly,
in expensive green silk.
Roses of rubies, lilies of pearl,
violets of amethyst: beautiful according to his taste,
to his desires - not as he saw them in nature
or studied them. He'll leave them in the safe,
examples of his bold, his skillful work.
Whenever a customer comes into the shop,
he brings out other things to sell- first class ornaments:
bracelets, chains, necklaces, rings.
(translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard)

The combination of this poem and these artifacts helps us notice things we don't normally think about when we read a modern poem or study ancient artifacts separately.

The presence of the jewelry brings to our attention both points of focus and lapses in the poem. We become aware that Cavafy brings the jeweler's gestures and emotions into high relief, while leaving the jewelry out of focus. Emphasis falls on the contrasting acts of hiding and exhibiting, as well as the contrasting feelings of passion for what is hidden and detachment for what is put on common display. The precise lines, designs, and techniques that distinguish the boldest from merely first class art remain undisclosed. Perhaps they lie subjectively in the taste and times of the beholder.

At the same time, the poem helps us develop a reflective imagination in relation to the artifacts. It calls our attention to the fact that ancient artifacts such as these reach us devoid of their own story from their conception in an artist's fertile mind to their purchase, use, and ultimate burial. Instead another story attaches itself to them, which begins with their modern discovery. They are reduced to objects found at a certain site under a set of described conditions, dated to a period, classified by their materials and hypothetical use, noted for their state of preservation.

The poem invites us to imagine stories the artifacts might commemorate. And the artifacts remove the temptation to identify the scene of the poem too facilely with Cavafy's own times and to imagine the jeweler as Cavafy, the artist who painstakingly hid his boldest work. Displayed together, poem and artifacts encourage us to move between modern and ancient worlds, to consider what each has to tell us about the other.
Note: The exhibit, "Cavafy's World" can be browsed online at:
http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey/galleries/exhibits/cavafy/cavafy.html

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