DOI Artikel:
Hussey, George B.: Greek sculptured crowns and crown inscriptions
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8678#0150
GEEEK SCULPTURED CROWNS AXD CROWN
INSCRIPTIONS.*
[Plates X, XL]
The following notes are limited to the consideration of a very hum-
ble class of the monuments of Greek art. Of the marbles on which
crowns are figured not one is noticed by a contemporary author; and
there is probably not one made by a known artist. The crown, or
wreath of honor, was doubtless developed from a badge of priestly
office or a mere ornament, and became a reward conferred by the
highest civic authority before the date of the earliest of these reliefs
as yet known. From the beginning of the fourth century before our
era until the beginning of the fourth century after it, there is now
available a tolerably continuous series of such reliefs.
CROWNS.
The crowns are cut upon the flat surface of the marble, and the relief
is almost always less than one cm. high. Sometimes the crown is cpiite
without relief, and only the outline is incised on the marble with a
sharp point. The koilanaglyphic method, too, is often employed for
these reliefs : i. e., the material is cut away from around the crown so
as to leave it projecting in a slight depression, but not raised above
the general level of the stone. When several crowns occur on the same
monument or the same block of stone, they may be upon three sides
of it; but more usually the)- occupy the face alone. When there are
several on one side, they are placed at equal distances from one another
in vertical or horizontal rows. The more usual arrangement is, how-
ever, the latter; and, when two or three crowns occur by themselves,
they arc almost invariably placed side by side, not one Ixjlow the other.
* The collection of the material for this paper was encouraged by the following
remark in Baumeister's Denkmiiler, p. 795: Da iiber Krdnze seit Paschalius ['^•1625'],
'.D? Coronis' (Leyden, 16S0) nicht mchr ausfiihrlich gchandclt uorden isl, so verdienle dor
Gerjenstand, namentlich mit Biickskht aufdas in den Denkmalern vorliegende Material, eint
erncute Unlersuchung.
135
INSCRIPTIONS.*
[Plates X, XL]
The following notes are limited to the consideration of a very hum-
ble class of the monuments of Greek art. Of the marbles on which
crowns are figured not one is noticed by a contemporary author; and
there is probably not one made by a known artist. The crown, or
wreath of honor, was doubtless developed from a badge of priestly
office or a mere ornament, and became a reward conferred by the
highest civic authority before the date of the earliest of these reliefs
as yet known. From the beginning of the fourth century before our
era until the beginning of the fourth century after it, there is now
available a tolerably continuous series of such reliefs.
CROWNS.
The crowns are cut upon the flat surface of the marble, and the relief
is almost always less than one cm. high. Sometimes the crown is cpiite
without relief, and only the outline is incised on the marble with a
sharp point. The koilanaglyphic method, too, is often employed for
these reliefs : i. e., the material is cut away from around the crown so
as to leave it projecting in a slight depression, but not raised above
the general level of the stone. When several crowns occur on the same
monument or the same block of stone, they may be upon three sides
of it; but more usually the)- occupy the face alone. When there are
several on one side, they are placed at equal distances from one another
in vertical or horizontal rows. The more usual arrangement is, how-
ever, the latter; and, when two or three crowns occur by themselves,
they arc almost invariably placed side by side, not one Ixjlow the other.
* The collection of the material for this paper was encouraged by the following
remark in Baumeister's Denkmiiler, p. 795: Da iiber Krdnze seit Paschalius ['^•1625'],
'.D? Coronis' (Leyden, 16S0) nicht mchr ausfiihrlich gchandclt uorden isl, so verdienle dor
Gerjenstand, namentlich mit Biickskht aufdas in den Denkmalern vorliegende Material, eint
erncute Unlersuchung.
135