From the Mausoleum at Halikarnassus (modern Bodrum).
Marble relief.
Ca. 350 BCE. London, British Museum.
H 35 in., W 50 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 740.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location: Concert Hall Lobby

The Mausoleum at Halikarnassus was the tomb of King Mausolus (d. 353 BCE) of Caria in western Asia Minor (modern Turkey). It is thought to have been completed after his death by his wife/sister Artemisia. The tomb became one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, in part because of its colossal size (over 140 feet tall), and because it was decorated with statues and reliefs carved by some of the most famous Greek sculptors of the day. The tomb survived until the thirteenth century, when it was destroyed by an earthquake. Thereafter, much of the marble of which it had been constructed was carried off and used nearby for building materials. The Castle of St. Peter at Bodrum contains many blocks from the Mausoleum. This is one of the most famous reliefs from the tomb on the west coast of Turkey that was actually named the Mausoleum, from which the modern usage of the word derives. A Greek warrior, conventionally nude by classical artistic convention, has fallen on one knee, tries to protect himself with his shield, and looks over his shoulder at his vicious attacker, an Amazon, her feet planted firmly, her sword raised over her head to strike. She is clad in a tunic, as members of this warlike race of women are typically represented in classical art. At the left, part of an Amazon astride a rearing horse is part of the next scene. The site of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos was first excavated between 1856 and 1858 by Charles T. Newton, an assistant curator at the British Museum, with a permit (firman) from the Turkish Sultan to remove the sculptures, many of which had been built into the walls of the castle of St. Peter, built by the Knights of St. John in 1402. Many of the sculptures and reliefs that had once decorated the tomb were taken to the British Museum in London, where they are now on display.
~Ellen McV. Layman


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Bibliography


See Lucilla Burn, The British Museum Book of Greek and Roman Art (London, 1991), 112-126; A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. 2 (London, 1900), 65-143. Fig. 14. Fig. Cast no. 14 by Andrew Zimmerman.]]>
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 1226.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 Hallway



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Bibliography


Fig. 15.]]>
Found in the sanctuary of Demeter at Knidos in Asia Minor.
Parian marble.
Ca. 350 - 330 BCE.
The whole statue is in London, British Museum. H without base 17 in. Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 749.
Cast Location: Krasnow Bldg

Demeter, the Greek goddess of grain and of fertility, was associated with the underworld at Knidos, where she was worshipped along with other underworld deities, including her daughter Persephone, the wife of Hades. In this sanctuary, the seated sculpture of Demeter is portrayed as a model of Greek womanhood - serene, mature, and motherly, wearing a chiton and a mantle that veils her head. The statue is seated on a cushioned chair, her feet on a foot-stool. Her long hair is parted in the middle, with long locks falling onto her shoulders. Her eyes are deeply set, and her gaze is calm and perhaps sorrowful. The statue is usually thought to have been influenced by the work of the fourth-century-BCE artist Praxiteles. An expedition of London's Society of Dilettanti first noticed the statue in the Sanctuary of Demeter at Knidos, Turkey, in 1812. Charles Newton uncovered the seated figure and took it to London in 1858. The head was found at a later date, but the entire sculpture is in the British Museum.
~Ashley Simpson


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Bibliography

See A. H. Smith, Catalogue of Sculpture in Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. 2 (London, 1900), 200-204, no. 1300, pl. XXIV; Lucilla Burn, The British Museum Book of Greek and Roman Art (London, 1991). Fig. 16. Fig. Cast no. 16 before cleaning.]]>
From Ostia, port of ancient Rome.
Parian marble.
Style of the 4th century BCE.
London, British Museum.
H without base 14 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Head of cast no. 696.
Cast Location: Krasnow Bldg

This head comes from a Roman marble sculpture carved in the late Classical period in the style of Praxiteles. The full statue represents Aphrodite emerging from a bath, wearing drapery around her legs and sandals. Her hair is parted in the middle and knotted in back. Her expression is tranquil. In the cast, the tip of her nose has been restored. Gavin Hamilton excavated the statue in 1775, in the ruins of a bath complex. Charles Towneley purchased the statue.
~ Ashley Simpson


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Bibliography


See A. H. Smith, Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. 3 (London, 1904), 28, no. 1574. Fig. 17.]]>
Full statue found on the island of Andros.
Marble.
Style of the 4th century BCE.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum.
H without base 13 1/2 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 707.
Cast Location: Krasnow Bldg

In the full statue, Hermes wears a cloak slung over his left shoulder, and leans against a tree trunk with a snake coiled around it. The statue was identified as Hermes because of the snake: it is one of the two that would normally coil around his wand (caduceus). This sculpture was frequently reproduced in the Greco-Roman world.

~Ashley Simpson


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Bibliography

Fig. 18.]]>
Purchased in Rome in 1809, and apparently found in Ostia in 1792.
Parian marble.
Style of the 4th century BCE.
Munich, Glyptothek
H with base 22 1/2 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 767.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location: Robinson B359 Hallway

The young woman has an oval face, smooth and unmarked forehead and face, and somewhat hooded eyes. The hair is pulled back in parallel waves to the base of the head, in the manner of the Herculaneum Women in Dresden. Like them, she may be an idealized portrait. Otherwise, her untroubled features might suggest that she is a Muse or a goddess. The nose, chin, and neck are restored in the cast, making the head appear to be undamaged.



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Bibliography

See Adolf Furtwängler, Beschreibung der Glyptothek König Ludwig's I. zu München (Munich, 1910), 191-194, no. 210. Fig. 19.]]>

This head probably comes from a statue. The face is youthful and effeminate, and was originally identified as that of a woman. The head wears no wreath of vine leaves, which became the distinguishing feature of Dionysos in the later Hellenistic period. The long curly lock behind each ear probably extended to the shoulder. Dionysos came to the Greek pantheon from Phrygia. He injected a rash spirit of wine-drinking and intense mental frenzy, often manifested orgiastically. During the Archaic period of the sixth century BCE, he appears as a mature bearded god, but he grows younger during the fifth century, when he is portrayed as a youth, and he becomes more and more fleshy, sensual, and effeminate during the fourth century BCE and thereafter. Festivals were held in honor of Dionysos throughout Greece. In Athens, however, authorities toned down much of the festival's original madness. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts acquired the marble head in 1896 as part of a concerted effort to gather a collection of classical sculptures. The head was reported to have been found near the choragic Monument of Lysikrates (334 BCE) in what is now the Plaka region of Athens.
~Bill Pierce


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Bibliography

See Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, Mass., 1985); L. D. Caskey, Catalogue of Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Cambridge, Mass., 1925); Mary B. Comstock and Cornelius C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (Boston, 1976); W. K. C. Guthrie, The Greeks and their Gods (Boston, rpt. 1954). Fig. 20.]]>
Marble.
Ca. 180-156 BCE.
Berlin, Pergamon Museum.
H 62 in., W 43 in., D 18 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 798.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location:Johnson Ctr 2nd floor

The frieze to which this large statue of Apollo belongs consists of more than one hundred figures of Greek gods (led by Zeus) fiercely battling the giants. The most extensive representation of this epic conflict ever attempted by Greek artists, the frieze is thought to have served as a mythological parallel for the Pergamene victories over the Gauls or Galatians. The decorated altar was created during the reign of the Attalid king Eumenes II between 165 and 156 BCE and dedicated to Zeus and Athena. The names of the participants are helpfully inscribed on this encyclopedic monument. Apollo is defeating the giant Erysicthon. The torso is beautifully muscled, and the drapery folds help to express the drama of battle. German excavations directed by Karl Humann in 1879 and 1880 on the ancient acropolis at Pergamon in Turkey uncovered the magnificently carved frieze surrounding a high podium, and an Ionic colonnade at the top of the podium, within which was an altar dedicated to Zeus. The entire monument is in the Pergamon Museum, Berlin, which was built to house them.
~Lisa Hargrove


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Bibliography

See Renee Dreyfus and Ellen Schraudolph, editors, Pergamon: The Telephos Frieze from the Great Altar, vol. 2 (San Francisco, 1997); J. J. Pollitt, Art in the Hellenistic Age (New York, 1986); Evamaria Schmidt, The Great Altar of Pergamon (Leipzig, 1962). Fig. 21.]]>
From Athens, the Theater of Dionysos, 1862.
Pentelic marble.
First century BCE.
Athens, National Archaeological Museum no. 259.
H 44 in., W 25 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 881.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location:  SUB I top floor.  Additional copies of the cast can be found outside Robinson B, Harris Theatre, and in the Performing Arts Bldg.

This is thought to be one of three dancers carved in relief on marble slabs that were probably set up to form a triangular base for a three-legged bronze tripod-stand holding a bronze cauldron. The style is known as neo-Attic. The dancer wears a chiton and himation, and probably represents a nymph or one of the Horai (chorus). During the 800-year lifespan of the Theater of Dionysos, thousands of tripod-monuments were erected to honor the winners of Athenian dramatic contests. Concrete casts taken from this plaster cast can be seen in the Performing Arts Building, outside Harris Theater, and outside the Prince William Campus. The casts were made by sculptor Nick Xhiku. He poured a carefully mixed solution of cement, sand, marble chips (for color), and water into a rubber mold that he had made of the original cast, pouring slowly and inserting steel reinforcement rods. Unlike the plaster cast, the concrete casts can be installed outdoors. For the full process, see no. 52 below. ~Ellen McV. Layman]]>
Bibliography

See S. Karouzou, National Archaeological Museum Collection of Sculpture: A Catalogue (Athens, 1968, rpt 1974), 191-192; Katerina Romiopoulou, `Ellenoromaika Glypta tou Ethnikou Archaiologikou Mouseiou (Athens, 1997), 23-24, no. 11. Fig. 22. Fig. Cast no. 22 before cleaning. Fig. Latex mold of no. 22. Fig. Installation of new cast of no. 22 outside Harris Theater. Fig. New cast of no. 22.]]>
From Rome, found in the moat of the Castel Sant' Angelo.
First noted in 1628.
Marble.
3rd century BCE or later.
Munich, Glyptothek.
H 84 in.
2-piece
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 830.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location: Breezeway between Mason and College Halls

Fauns or satyrs, humans with tails who lived in the wilds, were followers of Dionysos/Bacchus. They were known in Classical times for wild drinking and for uncontrolled carousing. This drunken faun has dropped his pan-pipes behind the rock on which he lies sleeping, his limbs splayed out on a panther-skin with gaping jaws. The faun’s brow is knitted and his mouth is slightly open, suggesting that his sleep is not very comfortable. The marble faun was dug up in Rome in the 1620s, during the fortification of the Castel Sant’Angelo (built originally as a Mausoleum for the Emperor Hadrian, and decorated with statues). Pope Urban VIII’s family, the Barberini, owned the statue. During the 17th and 18th centuries, the Barberini Faun became one of the most famous antique statues in Rome. Perhaps the fact that it was poorly preserved made it even more tantalizing for artists and connoisseurs. A number of different artists adjusted the posture, and restored and re-restored its missing parts - a portion of the right leg, the left leg, the left arm, the fingers of the right hand, and the base. The fig-leaf was added during the 1600s. During the French occupation of Italy, the Barberini family were forced to sell this statue. Despite strenuous resistance to its export, the statue was sold to Ludwig I of Bavaria in 1814. It arrived in Munich in 1820, and a special room was built for it in the Glyptothek (Sculpture-Gallery).


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Bibliography

See Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (New Haven, 1981), 202-205. Figure.]]>