{"id":399392,"date":"2026-08-06T16:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/399392\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T16:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T16:20:20","slug":"new-san-antonio-exhibit-traces-ancient-beauty-ideals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/399392\/","title":{"rendered":"New San Antonio exhibit traces ancient beauty ideals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Amidst ongoing pop culture conversations of Ariana Grande\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/08\/03\/entertainment\/ariana-grande-weight-body-cec\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">thin frame<\/a> and other slimmed-down celebs, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.samuseum.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">San Antonio Museum of Art<\/a> (SAMA) is taking a look at how aesthetic standards have shifted over time and place. \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.samuseum.org\/artwork\/exhibition\/ancient-beauty-and-boday-art-from-four-continents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ancient Beauty and Body Art from Four Continents<\/a>,\u201d a new exhibit exploring the traditions of New Kingdom Egypt, Early Imperial Rome, Classic Maya, and Tang Dynasty China opens November 21.<\/p>\n<p>The show spotlights objects from SAMA\u2019s own ancient collections, along with loaned artifacts from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Witte Museum. In addition to viewing portraits, museum visitors can examine everyday tools, accessories, and vessels used in ancient self-care.<\/p>\n<p>The items often contrast with their utilitarian use. A bronze incense burner is elaborately fashioned into a Roman bust crowned by two serpents. An Egyptian cosmetics dish takes the form of a soapstone oryx. Many were found in grave sites, a reflection of the importance of grooming rituals to ancient lives.<\/p>\n<p>The museum says it wanted to not only contrast the standards of antiquity, but invite viewers to reflect on contemporary norms. Together, the works form a thesis: when it comes to beauty, there is really nothing new under the sun.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe ancient world was obviously very different from our own in a lot of ways, but actually most of what we do today to enhance or alter how we look are things people were already doing thousands of years ago,\u201d McAlpine, Associate Curator of Provenance Research, said in a release. \u201cI hope visitors to the exhibition are excited to see ancient objects related to all these things and more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAncient Beauty and Body Art from Four Continents\u201d will run through November 27, 2027, in the Steves Gallery. General tickets run from $14-$24, although the museum offers free admission on Tuesdays from 4-7 pm and second Sundays from 10 am-noon. SAMA says public programming related to the exhibit will be announced during its run.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Amidst ongoing pop culture conversations of Ariana Grande\u2019s thin frame and other slimmed-down celebs, the San Antonio Museum&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399393,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[140187,30751,9047,127489,8832,1915,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-399392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-ancient-art","tag-beauty","tag-china","tag-egypt","tag-exhibits","tag-museums","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}