Sport in antiquity stars in an exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples

Starting July 1, 2019, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) will host the exhibition Paideia. Youth and Sport in Antiquity, scheduled until Sept. 16. The exhibition ideally accompanies the 2019 edition of the Universiade, which this year will be held in Naples from July 3 to 14 (the last summer edition of the Universiade hosted by Italy was held in Sicily in 1997).

“Welcome Universiade!” greets MANN director Paolo Giulierini. “The National Archaeological Museum is preparing to live as a protagonist an unforgettable event for Naples and for Italy. In recent months we have worked in great synergy with the organization of Naples 2019- Summer Universiade and with the Campania Region, and today we are proud and excited: we will guard the torch, here in the heart of the city that was of the Isolimpic Games, where sport has always been part of life. And we will open our doors to young athletes from 120 countries, confident that they will feel at home. As a tribute to the values of the Universiade, we have thought of ’Paideia,’ a valuable exhibition, with exhibits that have been ’invisible’ for a long time, from figured vases to mosaics, and important loans. But as is well known, there are many testimonies of sport in antiquity in our collections, which will be enriched in July with ’Magna Graecia. We expect you, the world is invited.”

Twenty-five artifacts will thus be presented to the public in the Hall of Tyrannicides, coming, in particular, from the Museum’s very rich deposits and not exhibited for more than two decades, along with some works from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

Among the artifacts included in the exhibition will be paratenaic amphorae (inancient Greece they were offered as prizes to the winners of competitions and generally contained oil), vases with depictions of different sports disciplines, frescoes from Vesuvian cities with depictions of fights and chariot races, marble sculptures of athletes, and inscriptions from ancient Naples.

Scattered throughout the museum and in dialogue with the masterpieces of the permanent collections, there will be panels exploring some of the themes related to sports in antiquity: the social role of the athlete, the most practiced disciplines (among them, wrestling and boxing, running with torches typical of ancient Naples, running with dogs, athletics), the world of women in sports (women usually competed as part of religious ceremonies and in shrines dedicated to female deities).

It will be connected to the classical mythological tradition and, in particular, to the sacred figure of Ananke (for the Greeks she was the pre-Olympic Goddess of Fate), the show “Patricius VS Oliva,” which will be scheduled on July 1, at 6 p.m., at the National Archaeological Museum on the occasion of the vernissage of “Paideia.” the famous Olympic and world boxing champion, Ambassador of the Universiade, will be on stage with Rossella Pugliese to narrate the beauty and complexity of the ring of life; the play, taken from the biography Sparviero - my story of Patrizio and Fabio Rocco Oliva, will be directed by Alfonso Postiglione.

The cultural activity, planned for the opening of the Paideia exhibition, will anticipate the passage of the 2019 Naples Universiade Torch to MANN: the Torch, an icon of peace, union and brotherhood, will arrive at the National Archaeological Museum on the evening of Tuesday, July 2, to “sleep” (this is the term used, as if to indicate the personification and affective value of the torch) at MANN after a long journey across the peninsula, whose emblematic stops were the Turin departure and the blessing in St. Peter’s Square by Pope Francis.

Finally, to fully experience the link between sport and culture, visiting the museum collections and the Paideia exhibition, from July 1 to 20 the National Archaeological Museum of Naples will grant free admission to accredited (delegates, athletes, journalists) and Universiade volunteers; event ticket holders will have access to the MANN at a symbolic cost of 2 euros.

For all information you can visit the official MANN website.

Source: press release

Sport in antiquity stars in an exhibition at the National Archaeological Museum in Naples

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