Free Republic

At the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. through March 16Did you miss it? 2013 was the Year of Italian Culture (YOIC), brought to us by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The themes of the event were, according to the brochure, “Research, Discovery, and Innovation”—which is somewhat odd, considering that the most noticeable manifestation of the YOIC was the temporary importation of various masterpieces of Italian art that are hundreds or even thousands of years old. Perhaps the idea was for the YOIC to give evidence of past innovation. In any event, those of us on the receiving end...

In storybook histories, the ancient city of Gordion is remembered only as the seat of King Midas, he of the golden touch, and the place where Alexander the Great struck a famous blow in legend and metaphor. Challenged to separate the strands of an impossible knot, the Gordion knot, the conqueror cut through the problem, in the manner of conquerors, with one authoritative swing of his sword. After Midas and Alexander, Gordion languished on the fringes of history, and until recently archaeologists had taken little notice of its Celtic past. Yes, European Celts — the Gauls of Roman times and ...

During the 230s B.C., Attalos I of Pergamon in Asia Minor decisively defeated marauding tribes of Gauls. Known for their muscular physique and the feral appearance imparted by the thick, manelike locks of hair they washed with water and lime, these Celtic warriors were at various times a terror to Greeks and Romans alike. In 387 B.C. they had plundered Rome itself. "The Dying Gaul," on loan to the National Gallery of Art, in Washington, from Rome's Capitoline Museum through March 16, is a superb antique copy of a sculptural masterpiece originally intended to commemorate the Pergamene triumph. Attalos I...