amazone blessée par Kresilas Polycleitos / Wounded amazone by Kresilas
The Sciarra amazon ' often attribuyed to Kresilas) offers a completely different reading : pathos, studiously avoided by the others is the keynote. Both her breasts are bare and she uses her dead horse's bridle for a belt ; she has clearly been raped. Exausted, she leans one elbow on a pillar (a boundary of the sactuary ?) , resting the other hand on her head as if about to faint . These responses to her situation regulate the poise or the entrire stature, wich employs polycleitan contrapposto as a purely sencondary aesthetic device , to unify the composition. No attemp is made to integrate the wound into all this : placed below and behind the right breast, it appears almost as an afterthought. Yet whareas it was the polycleitant amazon (Sosikles ?) that reportedly gained the prize, it is the Sciarra with its momentary pathos, and indications of settings, that announces the future. Andrew Stewart
The Berlin type was discovered in Rome near the Baths of Diocletian in 1868 and acquired the next year by the Pergamon Museum. Stylistically, this Amazon has been identified with Polycleitus (given the affinity of the head with that of his Doryphoros). Here, one can discern the pathos of the Amazon, who leans exhausted on a pillar (which Stewart suggests may be a boundary marker of the sanctuary). The entire right arm and left forearm, both hands and feet, and the pillar and its plinth have been restored.
It also is known as the Lansdowne or Sciarra type from two other copies.
One is said to have been acquired by the painter and antiquary Gavin Hamilton in 1771 to decorate the house of Lord Shelburne, Marquis of Lansdowne. It now is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), a gift of John D. Rockefeller in 1932. It preserves most of the right arm, part of the hand, and the upper portion of the pillar. The head, which was described by Hamilton at the time as one "which surpasses much any that I have yet seen," required only that the nose be restored, which was cast from the Sciarra statue, as were the missing feet The lower legs are plaster casts from the Berlin Amazon. The left hand, as in all the types, was missing and has not been restored.
The other copy is in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen) and was acquired in 1897 from the Palazzo Sciarra and, in turn, from Cardinal del Monte in 1628 on whose property it was found, the former gardens of Sallust. The pillar has not been restored nor the right hand or left arm below the shoulder.
There is a bleeding wound to the side of the right breast, which may explain the gesture of the arm and the stance, the Amazon wearily leaning against the pillar for support. It also may signify the bravery of the warrior or, given that the wound is not consistent with the pose, simply be the invention of the copyist as an analogy to the wounded type.
The belt that ties the chiton is distinctive to the Berlin type and shows a leather strip that loops around hooks held in place by rivets at each end of a rectangular buckle. (The belt of the Mattei type is tied with a Herculean knot, with the loose ends hanging down; and the Capitoline type is simply a flat band that is not tied at all.) It may represent the broken rein of a horse, used on the battlefield by the distressed Amazon.
L'amazone lève le bras droit et passe l'autre devant le torse pour dénuder le sein gauche blessé. Cette composition est connue par une série de répliques dont la meilleure copie, signée par le sculpteur Sôsiclès, est conservée au musée du Capitole à Rome. Elles reproduiraient un original attribué au bronzier argien Polyclète, réalisé lors d'un concours organisé vers 440-430 avant Jésus-Christ, pour le sanctuaire d'Artémis à Ephèse. Les plus grands sculpteurs classiques y participeront parmi lesquels Crésilas, Phidias et Polyclète qui sera déclaré vainqueur.
amazone blessée par Kresilas Polycleitos / Wounded amazone by Kresilas
The Sciarra amazon ' often attribuyed to Kresilas) offers a completely different reading : pathos, studiously avoided by the others is the keynote. Both her breasts are bare and she uses her dead horse's bridle for a belt ; she has clearly been raped. Exausted, she leans one elbow on a pillar (a boundary of the sactuary ?) , resting the other hand on her head as if about to faint . These responses to her situation regulate the poise or the entrire stature, wich employs polycleitan contrapposto as a purely sencondary aesthetic device , to unify the composition. No attemp is made to integrate the wound into all this : placed below and behind the right breast, it appears almost as an afterthought. Yet whareas it was the polycleitant amazon (Sosikles ?) that reportedly gained the prize, it is the Sciarra with its momentary pathos, and indications of settings, that announces the future. Andrew Stewart
The Berlin type was discovered in Rome near the Baths of Diocletian in 1868 and acquired the next year by the Pergamon Museum. Stylistically, this Amazon has been identified with Polycleitus (given the affinity of the head with that of his Doryphoros). Here, one can discern the pathos of the Amazon, who leans exhausted on a pillar (which Stewart suggests may be a boundary marker of the sanctuary). The entire right arm and left forearm, both hands and feet, and the pillar and its plinth have been restored.
It also is known as the Lansdowne or Sciarra type from two other copies.
One is said to have been acquired by the painter and antiquary Gavin Hamilton in 1771 to decorate the house of Lord Shelburne, Marquis of Lansdowne. It now is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), a gift of John D. Rockefeller in 1932. It preserves most of the right arm, part of the hand, and the upper portion of the pillar. The head, which was described by Hamilton at the time as one "which surpasses much any that I have yet seen," required only that the nose be restored, which was cast from the Sciarra statue, as were the missing feet The lower legs are plaster casts from the Berlin Amazon. The left hand, as in all the types, was missing and has not been restored.
The other copy is in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (Copenhagen) and was acquired in 1897 from the Palazzo Sciarra and, in turn, from Cardinal del Monte in 1628 on whose property it was found, the former gardens of Sallust. The pillar has not been restored nor the right hand or left arm below the shoulder.
There is a bleeding wound to the side of the right breast, which may explain the gesture of the arm and the stance, the Amazon wearily leaning against the pillar for support. It also may signify the bravery of the warrior or, given that the wound is not consistent with the pose, simply be the invention of the copyist as an analogy to the wounded type.
The belt that ties the chiton is distinctive to the Berlin type and shows a leather strip that loops around hooks held in place by rivets at each end of a rectangular buckle. (The belt of the Mattei type is tied with a Herculean knot, with the loose ends hanging down; and the Capitoline type is simply a flat band that is not tied at all.) It may represent the broken rein of a horse, used on the battlefield by the distressed Amazon.
L'amazone lève le bras droit et passe l'autre devant le torse pour dénuder le sein gauche blessé. Cette composition est connue par une série de répliques dont la meilleure copie, signée par le sculpteur Sôsiclès, est conservée au musée du Capitole à Rome. Elles reproduiraient un original attribué au bronzier argien Polyclète, réalisé lors d'un concours organisé vers 440-430 avant Jésus-Christ, pour le sanctuaire d'Artémis à Ephèse. Les plus grands sculpteurs classiques y participeront parmi lesquels Crésilas, Phidias et Polyclète qui sera déclaré vainqueur.