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Athenian late archaic sculptures

• Καράγιωργα-Σταθακοπούλου,  Θεοδώρα

The head of a male youth and the head and left wing from a statue of a Sphinx published here come from the Archaic cemetery at the Acharnian Gate, on modern Aiolou Street. They were found together in disturbed levels containing deposits dating from Late Archaic to Roman times. The two sculptures date from the 540s BC, are by the same sculptor, and probably formed part of the same monument.The Sphinx clearly follows the type of the Corinthian Sphinxes, and the opportunity is taken to analyse the structure of the traditional, “neodaidalic” type of Archaic Corinthian face, and most importantly to examine the question of Corinthian influence on Attic sculpture in the period from 575 to 540. Loans are identified in both structures and shapes, and the manner is investigated in which they were blended and assimilated with the major constants of the Attic artistic tradition in the two most important Athenian workshops of this period - the Kerameikos Sphinx workshop and the Polophoros Acr. 654- Rampin Horseman workshop. The Aiolou Street Sphinx is shown to be a harmonious, profound composition based on the basic structural principles of the Corinthian-inspired Attic tradition, with its dynamic, closed, round form, which derives from the other, Ionic component of the Attic style; the affinity between this Sphinx and the head Acr. 617 is also demonstrated. This head is an early work by the sculptor of the Aiolou Street Sphinx, and the hypothesis is advanced that in his youth this artist might have served as an apprentice in the Polophoros Acr. 654 workshop; at the height of his art, about ten years after the Sphinx, he might also have executed the Peplophoros figure Acr. 679.In the head of the youth, the stylistic associations mentioned above are confirmed, and the study concentrates on the fact that it was not worked in the round but is detached from a relief composition. The unique nature of this is stressed, and it is suggested, with great reserv ation, that the monument in question should be restored as a narrow grave stele carved in relief with a single figure walking right, the upper part of his body gradually turning, and his head turned to the side, gazing frontally at the viewer. This hypothesis is based on a detailed description of the multiple movement of the head and the distinctly conversational aspect of the expression, which is interpreted with reference to the similar psychological climate of other Attic grave monuments -inscriptions and reliefs - of the same period.

• History and Archaeology
• Arts

• Αρχαιολογία
• Τέχνη

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