Bust of so-called Sappho from the Villa of the Papyri
- Title:
- Bust of so-called Sappho from the Villa of the Papyri
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- C. Hennecke Co. (reproduction)
Unknown (Roman copy)
possibly Silanion of Athens (Greek original) (original)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. second half of 1st c. BCE (Roman copy)
ca. mid 4th c. BCE (Greek original)
- Site:
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin (reproduction)
Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum, Italy (discovery site, 1758) (original) - Location:
- Klarman Hall Atrium, Cornell University
previously, Goldwin Smith Hall (Room 135) and Goldwin Smith Hall, (Room 128)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin (reproduction)
Villa dei Papiri, Herculaneum, Italy (discovery site, 1758) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0615
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 365
#365 (> Sage) on pencil underneath
623 - File Name:
- CCC_0615.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 47 (H) x 65.5 (W) x 32 (D) cm
- Culture:
- Roman, after Greek
- Style/Period:
- Roman Late Republican or Early Imperial, after Greek Late Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster casts (sculpture)
bronze sculpture in the round (original) - Subject:
- Sappho
Herculaneum (Extinct city) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 54.5 x 57 x 29 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a well-preserved cast of a bronze bust of a woman with idealized features found in 1758 in the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. She has thick-lidded, almond-shaped eyes, a straight nose, and slightly parted lips. Her head is turned vaguely to her left and she looks calmly ahead. Her wavy hair is parted in the middle, banded by a narrow fillet, and held in a bun at the back. A himation drapes across her chest and is slung over her left shoulder
her right shoulder is bare. The bust ends just above the breasts. The cast has been painted black to mimic the patinated bronze of the original. Owing to the uniqueness of the drapery for a female figure and to the Classical or Classicizing features, the figure has been hypothesized to represent Sappho. In addition, the bust's full-width shoulders might suggest that the reproduction was made from a full-size statue and, even more hypothetically, the "portrait" statue of Sappho produced by the Greek sculptor Silanion in the mid 4th c. BCE. The identity of the figure and the attribution to the sculptor are highly speculative. From January until July 2015, this object was exhibited in the Bartels Gallery, Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, as part of an exhibition titled "Cast and Present: Replicating Antiquity in the Museum and the Academy." - Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 4896 - Bibliography:
- Carol C. Mattusch, The Villa dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005), 224-225
C. Hennecke Co. Formators, Plastic Art, Supplement to Catalogue no. 4 (Milwaukee, WI, 1895), 8, no. 4258 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Naples, National 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.