Across Weirdish Wild Space

[OK, I did this last weekend actually, but only just got round to doing a little writeup on it.]

You do have to hand it to the Brit Museum.

Besides being one of the world’s premiere museums (I still prefer the Louvre), holding the Hadrian exhibit inside the Pantheon-inspired Museum Reading Room while speaking about Hadrian’s contributions to architecture is a self-referential masterstroke. While considering how he rebuilt Agrippa’s building and a still staple reminder of Rome’s ancient glories inside a room where you can look up and see how that Dome influenced the modern world gives a certain relevance to Hadrian’s contributions that a dry recounting of his life in other surrounds would never convey.

It does set the scene, much like the dramatic trailer video that starts off the exhibit does (and having Patrick Stewart do the voiceover is yet another brilliant coup) . Which basically reminds me of those line from the Princess Bride,

“Fencing. Fighting. Torture. Poison. True love. Hate. Revenge. Giants. Hunters. Bad men. Good men. Beautifulest ladies. Snakes. Spiders. Beasts of all natures and descriptions. Pain. Death. Brave men. Coward men. Strongest men. Chases. Escapes. Lies. Truths. Passion. Miracles.”

Well, you get the idea, though it is very well produced. Like a trailer for a television documentary on the Beeb. And it does its job well in letting you know that this exhibit is going to be about the stories around Hadrian’s life, rather than the dry artifacts. Which immediately makes it a lot more interesting than the dry retelling of the facts despite the scandalous £12 entry price (since I’m a member, I got my friend and I in free though ;-) )

The incredible thing is how little is actually known of Hadrian except from a few scant sources, and how this exhibit was largely possible through recent discoveries in places like Sargalassos in Turkey. It goes over his achievements as architect, statesman (I love the cancelling of all public debts owed to the Republic to the amount of 900 million sestertii which provided an immense economic impetus to a moribund empire – How much would that be in today’s money ?), and military leader as well as the way he became emperor, and his marriage with a beautiful woman even while he had a male lover (only the British would dedicate an entire room of the exhibit to this, regardless of how the Antinous cult carried on after his death and somewhat competed with Christianity. We get it already. Hadrian was gay. Move on, please. Just about everybody was then, thanks.).

All in all, a pretty impressive exhibit, which gives you the storied impression Hadrian behaved differently, looked differently and acted differently, and came to power differently than any other emperor before or after him and provides a great base for wanting to learn more about the emperors and understanding the legacy of ancient Rome (and Hadrian !). Definitely worth the visit though I think the price is a little high, particularly considering BP is sponsoring this thing rather heavily.

One thing I really have to start wishing though of British museums in general. If you’re not going to allow people to take pictures in the exihibit—or at least openly disocourage it even if it’s practically impossible in this age of camera phones, and particularly of unique little bits of wall display you might have created which might represent maps of ancient cities, overlay of empires or other material which is going to help people expand their understanding of what you’re representing, please put this stuff online and get a greater understanding of your audience. I still can’t believe I had to snag a pirated video of the trailer off YouTube when the British Museum should have it up there already.