Rumbling to Rome…
Caroline Mackenzie, one of the student ambassadors on the Modern Classicisms project, writes about experiencing ‘modern classicisms’ during the 2017–2018 Rumble Fund trip to Rome.
One of the highlights of studying Classics at King’s is the opportunity to be part of the annual Rumble Fund trip to classical lands. The 2017–18 trip returned to Rome, and was led by Dr Michael Squire and Dr John Pearce: it took place in December 2017.
The five days were crammed with classical delights, as well as with some modern classicisms surprises. Even in the commercial surrounds of the airport, Chanel was embracing the classical to showcase its ‘Cruise 2017/2018 Campaign’ collection. These designs, recalling the beauty of Greek goddesses and adorned with emblems of olive branches, featured on one of our flyers promoting the project’s competition (see our earlier blog, ‘The panel is out’).
Another of our popular flyers for the competition was that of Abercrombie and Fitch male models, lined up in a manner reminiscent of a museum display of kouroi – ancient Greek statues of naked young men (the Greek word kouros means male youth). With this image in mind, it was easy to imagine that classical ideals of the body beautiful inspired the kouros style icon just as conspicuously as they did the Chanel beauties in the duty- free zone, chosen to tempt travelers to purchase Paco Rabanne’s eau de toilette. Even the gold snake coiled around the bottle seemed to recall the subjects of classical mythology.
Once in Rome, one student re-enacted his very own interpretation of modern classicisms, posing next to a marble Roman copy of Myron’s fifth-century Discobolos. The Capitoline Venus also provided inspiration for some students to strike a pose.
At the entrance to the Musei Capitolini, a modern Medusa head emblazoned an advertisement for a forthcoming exhibition. Damien Hirst’s The Severed Head of Medusa is just one of the wonderful artworks which will shortly be on display in The Classical Now exhibition – watch this space for further updates!
