Mitchell, Lucy M.: A history of ancient sculpture (New York, 1883)

200 ARCHAIC SCULPTURE.

Happily at last a speaking witness to the skill of early Samian sculptors in
marble has been found on their native island, within the precincts of its great
temple.32° Among the secondary shrines which seem to have surrounded the
temple proper was discovered a statue measuring 1.92 meters in height, and
of white, large-grained marble, like that of Paros (Fig. 96). The shape of the
letters of its inscription, and the careful workmanship of the statue, give as its
date the end of the sixth, or the beginning of the fifth, century B.C. We notice
at once the stiff, erect form, in general resembling that of Nicandra's votive
gift at Delos (Fig. 89). But this marble figure illustrates the growth from such
unwieldy works, in which the influence of wooden patterns was felt, to those
in which the statue becomes in spirit almost thoroughly a marble production.
Here we see a very richly dressed lady, and close examination shows how
elaborate and painfully fine are the details of her wardrobe. Not the two sim-
ple garments usually met with in Greek statues of a more perfected art, but
four are clearly to be distinguished. A long under-robe of light and apparently
ribbed stuff falls from shoulders to feet, and is girded at the waist. Over this
a coarser shawl-like mantle is thrown, buttoned many times on the arm, which
is left bare below the elbow. The third wrap hangs most curiously from the
girdle in a curve above, and falls in a straight, bordered mass around the body
nearly to the feet. The fourth garment, not to be seen in the plate, falls from
the neck straight down the back, nearly to the bottom of the third. The right
hand and arm, both worked out with care, hold the stiff drapery at the side;
while the left hand, but partially preserved, is laid across the breast, where a
hole indicates that some attribute, perhaps a pomegranate or flower, was origi-
nally fastened. But who may be this quaint, elaborately dressed lady from the
temple-courts ? The inscription carved into the border of her second mantle,
where it is attached to the belt, addresses the beholder with the words, " Xera-
meus consecrated me a votive gift to Hera ;" and it is probable that the richly
draped statue represents Hera herself. The wardrobe of this temple divinity
at Samos, according to an inscription discovered there in 1877, was very rich.321
There were many tunics of various colors, and mantles of fine tissues ; and may
we not imagine the sculptor, in his representation of Hera, to have been influ-
enced by the sight of the old xoana, hung with such rich and costly garments ?
The style of the sculpture is exceedingly interesting, as being much like that
of the famous statues from Miletos, discovered by Professor Newton, and now
in the British Museum (p. 179). An elaborateness of drapery is seen in them
also, as well as the failure to render the form under the heavy folds.

Thus we see, that, from the islands of the /Egean, many monuments of
greatest importance for the history of very early Greek sculpture have been
rescued ; and we can only hope that other long-hidden treasures will soon be
brought to light.