A Statuette of an Amazon

Author(s): Gisela M. A. Richter

Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 28, No. 4, Part 1 (Apr., 1933), pp. 76-78
Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3255020
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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

part, the later coats of paint and to reveal the head was missing.Though at least six
the original coloring beneath. Before its Roman copies of this type were known,
purchase by the Museum our group had noneofthemhad thehead preservedexcept
undergonea cleaningof this kind,withthe a hermfromLoukou whichwas of too gen-
resultthat muchof the old paint may now eralized a character and too battered to
be seen, althoughindicationsof the succes- serve as certainevidence.4Speculationhas
sive repaintingsstillremain. naturallybeen active as to whethera sepa-
The Virginwears a whitehead veil. Her rate head existedwhichcould be joined to
hair was originallygilded. Her mantle is thebody.Variouscandidatesappearedfrom
blue and gold, lined with red; her gown, timeto time; but none carriedenoughcon-
blue with traces of later red. The Child's victionto stop the searchof the fivebodies
dressis green,patternedwithgold; the lin- fortheirhead.
ing, white. The bench is green,repainted At last the problemhas been solved. A
red, with blue and gold moldings; the figureof this typewitha head actuallybe-
cushion,greenwith gold tassels. The scroll longingto it has beenfound,and the Metro-
hangingdown over one end of the benchis politan Museum has become its fortunate
white with an inscription3in black. The possessor.It is exhibitedthis monthin the
part of the borderof the Virgin'sveil which Roomof RecentAccessionsand laterwillbe
projected over the brow has been broken placed in the Sixth Classical Room. The
off.The Child's nose and upper lip have statuetteis of marble,about one-thirdlife
been damaged and restored.There are also size,5beautifullyworkedand with the sur-
a fewminorinjuries,but on the whole the face in excellentcondition(figs.1-3). Parts
groupis in remarkablyfinecondition. of the legs and of the armsare missing;but
JOSEPH BRECK. enoughremainsto give a new impressionof
the beautyand vitalityof the original.
An Amazon wearing a short chiton is
A STATUETTE OF AN AMAZON standingwith her weighton the rightleg,
the leftplaced forwardand a littlesidewise.
For morethaneightyyearsarchaeologists The rightarm was raised and broughtfor-
have triedto solve the problemof assigning ward,the leftloweredand held out a little
threetypesof Amazons,each preservedin at the side. Everylineofthebodyis expres-
several Roman copies, to the threefamous sive of movement.The figureis composed,
sculptorsmentionedin Pliny's well-known so to speak, like the letterS, the head and
tale-Polykleitos, Pheidias, and Kresilas.1 upper body forminga curve in one direc-
The type representedby the Lansdowne tion,the lowerbody and legs a curvein the
Amazon recentlyacquiredby the Museum2 oppositedirection.The bow-likefoldsofthe
has on good evidence been attributedto drapery,the postureof arms and legs, the
Polykleitos. The assignment of another curve of the long neck, and even the ar-
type,that generallyreferred to as the Mat- rangementof the hair carryout and rein-
tei one,3was complicatedby the fact that forcethis curvilineardesign,impartingto
4 Besides the statue in the Vatican and the
3 AV[E] MA/RIA.ET[?]/ANTE./SECULA hermfromLoukouin the NationalMuseum,
/CREATA/SUM+ This is followed by three Athens,thereare statues in the Museo Capito-
as to be lino, Rome; the Museo di Antichita,Turin; the
so obliterated
linesofsmallerlettering
Anoldphotograph
indecipherable. ofthegroup, Provinzialmuseum,Trier; and the collectionof
takenbefore Petworth.
it was cleaned,showedthatthein- LordLeconfield, Thefragmentary one
hadbeencompletely
scription repainted by Soglianoin Mouaseov,
to read: fromBaiaimentioned
A/Marie/plaine[sic] de/grace, fut/creee[sic]/
i 1,2, has been
vol. II (1924-1925), pp. ff.,figs. 4,
avant/les/siecles.
bienheure/use type; cf. Arndt,Loeb
shownto be of a different
1The fourthsculptormentioned-PhradmonFestschrift,
p. 4.
-is comparatively
unknown,and so thefourth 5Acc. no. 32.116. H. as preserved20116 in.
h. of head in. The mar-
(10.2 cm.).
type of Amazon, preservedin only one or two (52.3 cm.); 4
copies,has naturallybeenassociatedwithhim. ble is Pentelic and has the usual cracks. The
2 Cf. BULLETIN, vol. XXVIII (1933), PP. I ff. werebrokenfromthe
head and rightshoulder
3 Named after the example in the Vatican body,but thefracturesfit. The plasterfillingsat
formerly in theVilla Mattei. the jointsare the onlyrestorations.

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

the figurean amazingelasticityand grace. the largerstatues bringsout more clearly

The clue to the meaningof this unusual
pose was long ago recognizedin the repre-
sentation on a gem (now lost, but pre-
servedin a drawing;cf. fig.4) whichsup-
plies the whole composition.It shows an
Amazon graspinga longpole or spear with
bothhands,therighthighabove thehead6-
the underlyingcompositionalscheme.The
rightarmholeis largerthan in the statues,
and so exposes most of the rightbreast.
Moreoverthe quiver has been suppressed,
and also the supportingtree trunk.Such
variationsand simplifications
are frequent
in statuettescopied fromlargeroriginals.8

_ r~~~~~~~~~~~A
_ w1

FIGS. 1-3. STATUETTE OF AN AMAZON

GREEK OR ROMAN COPY OF A WORK ATTRIBUTED TO PHEIDIAS

evidentlypreparingfor some action, per- We must rememberthat reductionsin an-

haps to swingherselfon herhorse.7
Comparedwith the statues of this type
our statuetteshowsa numberof variations,
especiallyin the drapery.The omissionof
the multitudinouscrinklyfolds presentin
6 In our statuettemoreof the
rightarmis pre-
servedthan in any of the othercopies; it closely
tallieswiththe rightarm in the drawing.
7 Xenophon, On the Art of Horsemanship
VII. i: ". . . whetherhe means to mount by
holdingon to the mane near the ears or to spring
up with the help of the spear" (translatedby
Marchant).
cient times were made free-hand,not
mechanically,and a sensitiveartistwould
be apt to introducechangesappropriateto
the reducedscale.
It is with unusual interestthat we look
at the head of this Amazon, forwhichwe
have waited so long. It correspondsin a
generalway withthat on the gem and that
on the Loukou herm,showingthe essential
trustworthiness of theirevidence.The hair
8 Lippold,Kopienund Umbildungen griechi-
scherStatuen,pp. 147 ff.

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 BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

is parted in the middle,broughtin gentle eyes, .... And Pheidias will furnish
waves over the ears, and knottedbehind. . the settingof the lips, and the neck,
The expressionof the face is radiant and takingthese fromhis Amazon." Now the
alert. Our Amazon is clearlynot suffering neckin our statuetteis particularlyattrac-
froma wound,as are the Berlin-Lansdowne tive, forminga beautifulcurve with the
and Capitoline ones, but is tense with head 9; and the finelyshaped, parted lips,
action. though rather summarilyworked in our
Our good fortunedoes not end withhav- small figure,suggesta lovely model. With
ing found a head for a statue. The evi- theirgracefulrefinement theywould com-
dence that thistypeof Amazon reproduces pose well with the eyes and brow of the
an original by Pheidias, as surmisedby Cnidian Aphrodite.
many,nowbecomesoverwhelmingly strong. Our statuette,therefore,exactly corre-
sponds with all we know of the Pheidian
Amazon.Moreoveritfurnishes newevidence
thatthistypecannotbe attributedto either
Kresilas or Polykleitos.Those who have
tried to identifythe typewith Kresilas's
Amazon10describedby Pliny as wounded
have arguedthat a wound must have been
indicatedin color on the upper left leg-
since it is not carved on any of the extant
copies.The senseofmovementin our statu-
etteand the radiantexpressionconclusively
show that it cannot representa wounded
Amazon,and therefore is not a copy of the
one by Kresilas.The assignmentofthetype
to Polykleitosappearedunlikelyevenwhen
onlythe bodywas known;our head, so dif-
ferentfromthe Polykleitanones, is a con-
FIG. 4. AMAZON, ON A GEM
vincingargumentagainst the attribution.
We can confidently claim,therefore, that
(FROM A DRAWING)
we have in our statuettea reproductionof
one of Pheidias'sgreatestworks.By its dis-
First,our statuetteis a new revelationof coverynotonlyhas a long-standing archae-
the beautyof the originaland givesa fresh ologicalproblembeensolvedbut ourunder-
meaningto the words of Lucian: "Which standingof Greece's greatestsculptorhas
amongtheworksof Pheidiasdid you praise been considerablyenlarged; for our little
most highly? Which but the Lemnian figureand those reproducingthe Athena
Athena . . . and the Amazon who leans Parthenosare the onlycertaincopies in the
upon her spear." Whereasone mighthave roundwhichhave survivedof the worksof
hesitatedto believe that the statuesofthis Pheidias.They mustformthefoundationof
typeofAmazonhithertoknownrepresented our studyof the Pheidian style.The obvi-
one ofthehighestachievements ofPheidias, ous similarityof our statuetteto the sculp-
our statuetteclearlyreproducesa workof turesof the Parthenonis significant.1l
singularbeauty. GISELA M. A. RICHTER
And we can be morespecific.In Lucian's 9 the portionsof the neck preservedin
Eikones(writtenA.D. I62-I64), whereLyki- theFrom Turin and Petworthcopies,Furtwangler
nos and Polystratosdescribea composite thought thattheheadmusthavebeenturned to
figurewith parts borrowedfromfamous theleft,nottaking intoaccounta possible curve.
10Cf. forinstanceNoack, Jahrb.d. deutschen
masterpieces,Lykinosproposes to borrow
fromthe Cnidian Aphroditeby Praxiteles arch. Inst.,vol. 30 (I915), pp. i 58 ff.
1 A fuller discussionofthisstatuette and the
"the arrangement of the hair,the forehead, archaeologicalproblemsinvolvedis to appear in
the fair line of the brows . . . and the the AmericanJournalof Archaeology.

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