266-274

An unfinished archaic sphinx - statue from Naxos

Σύμμεικτα

• Λαμπρινουδάκης, Βασίλειος Κ.

A fragmentary, unfinished statue of an archaic sphinx was found by chance in a deserted house on the citadel of Naxos some months ago. Preserved are only the wings ( length 0,48, breadth 0,18 m. ), a small part of the upper feline body and the basis of the generally shaped human, female head.The stage of work, being that usually reached in the quarries, witnesses once more the subtle and integral form obtained by the archaic sculpture already in the first steps of hewing the block : Discrepancies in shape and treatment of the different sides, as well as the trace of the hair on the upper side of the wings, show that the artist aimed at a sphinx with her head turned to the right.The form of the wings and their combination to a slender body point toa date between 540-530 B.C. for the fragment.It is not easy to say, whether this sphinx, the first of big size with head turned to the side, i.e1. with frontal side - view, to be known from the islands, was conceived as a funerary monument on the top of a stele, or as a votive sculpture on the top of a free ionic column, as her shape and origin respectively seem to suggest : Sphinx - stelae are not known from the islands and island sphinxes on votive columns do not turn their head to the side.But the dating of the fragment after the establishment of the naxian tyranny would anyhow explain the attic influence suggested in both cases by the structure of the piece.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Αρχαιολογία
• Sculpture
• Antiquities

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