London’s Kallos Gallery, the world’s only commercial gallery to specialise exclusively in the art of ancient Greece, will unveil an extraordinarily rare Cretan bronze helmet as part of their debut at the forthcoming Frieze Masters art fair.
The focal point of the gallery’s stand is a helmet featuring a striking tall crest and open-face design (650-620 BC), which has survived in remarkable condition from archaic Crete. It is one of only two known examples of its type in the world, and the only example to be minutely engraved with elaborate mythological scenes.
The helmet’s ornamental decorations, including depictions of the centaur Cheiron with Achilles, and Perseus presenting the head of Medusa to Athena, are some of the earliest in extant Greek art. Until the 1960s discovery of a fragmentary example now in Hamburg, this type of Cretan armour was known only in artistic depictions and widely held to be a figment of the Heroic Age. The re-emergence of Kallos Gallery’s exceptional example from a 19thcentury collection in 2005 confirmed the historical reality of these unique helmets.
Named after the ancient Greek for ‘Beauty’, Kallos Gallery was founded in 2014 by Baron Lorne Thyssen-Bornemisza. He comments: “We are delighted to be participating in our first international fair at Frieze Masters 2016. Kallos Gallery will be bringing some of the most important treasures of the ancient Greek world – from beautiful Athenian tableware to extraordinary relics from the history of Greek arms. We are excited to showcase these best-in-class artworks to the varied audience of serious collectors across different disciplines which the fair attracts.”
