DOI article:
Buck, Carl Darling: Discoveries in the Attic Deme of Ikaria, 1888
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.8678#0131
116
SCULPTURES FROM IKARIA.
tion between many Attic sepulchral reliefs and the relief-work of
Pheidias as exemplified in the Parthenon frieze.
VIII.—One of the finest pieces of sculpture found by us is a frag-
ment of a relief, probably sepulchral, representing a female figure
seated in a chair. Height, 0.26 m.; width, 0.20 m. Found north of
the church, about half a meter below the surface (plate viii). The
left hand holds the himation uj) from the breast; the right hand ex-
tends a vessel, apparently a phiale.22 About the crown of the head is
a ridge which is cut down slantingly
toward the head, calling to mind,
at first glance, the halo about the
heads of Byzantine saints. This
seems to be merely a device of the
nature of that adopted in the Par-
thenon frieze, to make the relief
appear higher than it really is.23 The
attitude of the figure and the deli-
cacy in the treatment of the drapery
remind one of some of the seated
female figures in the Parthenon
22 [If it is a phiale that is held in the right hand (as seems to me most likely) and
the monument is sepulchral, it would he a new phase, indeed, in Attika at this early
period; so much so that, in my judgment, it is not sepulchral, but represents a di-
vinity. The size of the figure within the limitations of space, the shape, so far as
preserved, and the comparative thinness of the slab, suggest a votive offering witli
adorants, rather than a sepulchral stele. This leads me to conjecture that we may
possibly have here a representation of the female divinity whom, in accordance with
the traditions of the spot, we ought to expect to find, nainety, Erigone. If the cast
of features calls to mind the Demeter (or Kore?) of the famous Eleusinian relief
(Friederichs-AYolters, Bausteine, No. 1182) with its "eminently religious char-
acter," we may remember that Erigone and the Ikarian story are closely allied to
the Eleusinian divinities and legends (Seventh Annual Report of School at Athens, pp.
G6, 97).—A. C. M.]
23 [If Constantinos's photographs do not deceive, something similar but less pro-
nounced exists about the back of the head of the middle figure on a sepulchral stele
of the Central Museum (IvABIiADiAS, KaraAoyos rod Kevrpinov Novo-eiov, No. 132;
Mrs. Mitchell, Hist.Anc. Sculpt., p. 382) and above the head of the female to the
left in the stele with the inscription 'Apto-reas 'I<f>»rna5?)r, mentioned by KoHLElt,
Stitth. Inst. Allien, 1885, p. 372. These are botli assigned to the fifth century. Sucli
concurrent circumstances may give some clue to the date of our relief. The hair
was not represented plastically at all on the bead, the surface being left quite rough.
This is also the case with the hair of the rider on the Dexileos monument in the
Kerameikos, where traces of paint show how the hair was treated, and it is proba-
ble that the same device was resorted to here.—A. C. M.]
Fig. 5 (ix).
SCULPTURES FROM IKARIA.
tion between many Attic sepulchral reliefs and the relief-work of
Pheidias as exemplified in the Parthenon frieze.
VIII.—One of the finest pieces of sculpture found by us is a frag-
ment of a relief, probably sepulchral, representing a female figure
seated in a chair. Height, 0.26 m.; width, 0.20 m. Found north of
the church, about half a meter below the surface (plate viii). The
left hand holds the himation uj) from the breast; the right hand ex-
tends a vessel, apparently a phiale.22 About the crown of the head is
a ridge which is cut down slantingly
toward the head, calling to mind,
at first glance, the halo about the
heads of Byzantine saints. This
seems to be merely a device of the
nature of that adopted in the Par-
thenon frieze, to make the relief
appear higher than it really is.23 The
attitude of the figure and the deli-
cacy in the treatment of the drapery
remind one of some of the seated
female figures in the Parthenon
22 [If it is a phiale that is held in the right hand (as seems to me most likely) and
the monument is sepulchral, it would he a new phase, indeed, in Attika at this early
period; so much so that, in my judgment, it is not sepulchral, but represents a di-
vinity. The size of the figure within the limitations of space, the shape, so far as
preserved, and the comparative thinness of the slab, suggest a votive offering witli
adorants, rather than a sepulchral stele. This leads me to conjecture that we may
possibly have here a representation of the female divinity whom, in accordance with
the traditions of the spot, we ought to expect to find, nainety, Erigone. If the cast
of features calls to mind the Demeter (or Kore?) of the famous Eleusinian relief
(Friederichs-AYolters, Bausteine, No. 1182) with its "eminently religious char-
acter," we may remember that Erigone and the Ikarian story are closely allied to
the Eleusinian divinities and legends (Seventh Annual Report of School at Athens, pp.
G6, 97).—A. C. M.]
23 [If Constantinos's photographs do not deceive, something similar but less pro-
nounced exists about the back of the head of the middle figure on a sepulchral stele
of the Central Museum (IvABIiADiAS, KaraAoyos rod Kevrpinov Novo-eiov, No. 132;
Mrs. Mitchell, Hist.Anc. Sculpt., p. 382) and above the head of the female to the
left in the stele with the inscription 'Apto-reas 'I<f>»rna5?)r, mentioned by KoHLElt,
Stitth. Inst. Allien, 1885, p. 372. These are botli assigned to the fifth century. Sucli
concurrent circumstances may give some clue to the date of our relief. The hair
was not represented plastically at all on the bead, the surface being left quite rough.
This is also the case with the hair of the rider on the Dexileos monument in the
Kerameikos, where traces of paint show how the hair was treated, and it is proba-
ble that the same device was resorted to here.—A. C. M.]
Fig. 5 (ix).