Classic good looks: why the art of ancient Greece is inspiring homeware designers

Ancient Greek art inspired Rodin, as seen in the British Museum’s summer blockbuster show, and a host of new homeware.
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Barbara Chandler12 July 2018

Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece is the summer blockbuster at the British Museum in Bloomsbury — catch it before it closes on July 29.

It teams the work of the great French sculptor (1840-1917) alongside the museum’s own Greek treasures and pieces the artist loved so very much and collected for his home.

“In my spare time I haunt the British Museum,” he said, often making sketches on the notepaper of the Thackeray Hotel where he stayed, opposite the museum in Great Russell Street.

Designers, too, have always loved classical art.

Columns and their crowning capitals, rounded arches, sculptures, urns, acanthus leaves and more have found their way into architecture and interior decoration throughout history.

Here’s a fresh edit of contemporary classical motifs, a product pantheon for the summer.

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