Amazonomachy frieze from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai
- Title:
- Amazonomachy frieze from the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown (architect: Iktinos)
- Photographer:
- Mericle, Danielle
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 400 BCE
- Site:
- Bassai, Greece (original)
- Location:
- Goldwin Smith Hall (second floor, top of stairwell), Cornell University
Bassai, Greece (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0761b
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 290
- File Name:
- CCC_0761b.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 64 (H) x 140 (W) cm
- Culture:
- Greek
- Style/Period:
- Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Temple of Apollo (Bassai)
Amazonomachy - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Description:
- This is a cast of a slab reconstructed from several fragments from the Ionic frieze of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai. Here, two Amazons and two Greeks engage in combat. At the left, an Amazon falls to her knees as the Greek to the right kicks her and pulls her hair. Her face is depicted in frontal view, pulled down toward the viewer's right. With her right hand she reaches up to grasp the Greek's hand in an attempt to loosen his hold on her hair, and with her left hand she reaches to take ahold of his upper arm. The nude but helmeted Greek, shown between three-quarter and frontal views and turned toward the viewer's left, supports his weight on his left leg while he extends his right leg to kick the falling Amazon. He holds a shield on his left arm. A garment wrapped around his left arm swirls behind him. To the right a Greek, nude except for the garment that covers his left lower thigh and swirls at the ground, kneels on the ground with his body in frontal view and his head turned to three-quarters toward the right. He holds a shield up over his head on his left arm as he attempts to defend himself from the attacking Amazon to the right. The Amazon, shown between three-quarter and frontal views and wearing a belted chiton, moves right but turns her torso and head back to strike the kneeling Greek. Her right arm is raised above her head and she presumably held a now-missing weapon in her right hand. The original block has been reconstructed from several fragments. Likely because they had not yet been discovered or incorporated into the reconstruction, this cast was made excluding some of those fragments, for example the face of the Greek on the left half of the block. The cast also does not include a large fragment from the bottom left corner of the slab showing most of the body of the Amazon at the left. The original of that fragment is held at the National Museum in Athens (NM 3415). A cast of the Athens fragment has been incorporated into the block as displayed in the British Museum. The east and south sections of the frieze were devoted to scenes of battle between Amazons and Greeks. This block has been located on the east side of the frieze. Casts of slabs from the interior frieze of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai are installed in the common spaces at the top (second floor) of the main stairwells in both the north and south wings of Goldwin Smith Hall.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 1815,1020.15 - Bibliography:
- W. B. Dinsmoor, "The Sculptured Frieze from Bassae," American Journal of Archaeology 60 (1956), 401-452
Hedwig Kenner, Der Fries des Tempels von Bassae-Phigalia (Vienna: F. Deuticke, 1946)
Ian Jenkins, Greek Architecture and its Sculpture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 130-150 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
London, British 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.