Colossal female head from Olympia, perhaps a Sphinx or Hera
- Title:
- Colossal female head from Olympia, perhaps a Sphinx or Hera
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890
ca. 600 BCE
- Site:
- Olympia, Greece (discovery site, 1878-1879, between Heraion and Palaistra) (original)
- Location:
- 726 University Avenue, Cornell University
Olympia, Greece (discovery site, 1878-1879, between Heraion and Palaistra) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0616
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 38
622 - File Name:
- CCC_0616.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 52 (H) cm
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Archaic, Peloponnesian (possibly Lakonian)
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
limestone sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Hera (Greek deity)
Sphinxes (mythology) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 52 x 40 x 22 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
wooden mount: 56 x 45 x 2 (centimeters, height x width x diameter) - Description:
- This is a cast of a colossal limestone female head discovered at Olympia and housed in the site museum. The oval-faced figure looks straight ahead with large, flat, tortoise shell-shaped eyes. The irises are indicated with light incision. Most of her nose has been broken away (in the original) and her thin lips are turned up into a vague smile. The figure's hair is arranged in patterned, rounded waves at the forehead and is banded at the hairline with a narrow fillet. She wears a low polos decorated with vertical lines. Behind the left ear, which projects out from the head, is a cluster of stone. There is no right ear on the original and seemingly never was. The chin of the original is chipped. The face is generally planar and the back of the head is flat. This cast is attached to a dark brown wooden mount.
The work was identified by its excavators as the head of the cult statue of Hera from the Temple of Hera in the Altis at Olympia, an identification that has been accepted by many subsequent scholars
others posit that it is the head of a Sphinx. Neither identification is secure. The figure's asymmetric anatomy has led some to the conclusion that it was not meant to be seen from the front and could also indicate placement in a pediment. Traces of paint were preserved on the hair and headdress of the original. - Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. L 1 - Bibliography:
- Alfred Mallwitz and Hans-Volkmar Herrmann, Die Funde Aus Olympia. Ergebnisse hundertjähriger Ausgrabungstätigkeit (Athens: Verlag S. Kasas, 1980), 136-137, pl. 94
Gipsformerei, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Katalog der Originalabgüsse, Heft 4, Griechenland und Rom: Freiplastik, pl. 50, no. 1896
Rune Frederiksen and R. R. R. Smith, The Cast Gallery of the Ashmolean Museum. Catalogue of plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculpture (Oxford: The Ashmolean Museum, 2011), 86, no. B 38
Dorothy Kent Hill, "Hera, the Sphinx," Hesperia 13 (1944), 353-360
John Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Archaic Period (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978), 25, fig. 73 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Olympia, Archaeological Museum (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.