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_0765
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 290
- File Name:
- CCC_0765.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 64 (H) x 137 (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 from the Ionic frieze of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai showing a battle scene that includes three Amazons and a Greek. At the left, an Amazon runs toward a Greek to the right. She is shown in three-quarter view with her head in profile turned to the right. She wears boots and a belted chiton that swirls around her knees, along with a chlamys over her outstretched left arm that billows down and behind her back. She holds her right arm out and back. The Greek she confronts faces and moves toward her holding his right arm over his head, prepared to strike her with a now-missing (in the original) weapon. He wears a belted exomis and a billowing chlamys wrapped around his left arm. He is shown in three-quarter view with his head in profile facing left. To the right, an Amazon stoops slightly to help a fallen compatriot, probably dragging her to safety. She turns her head to look over her right shoulder. She is shown in three-quarter view and wears a belted chiton with a chlamys around her neck that swirls up and behind her. She grasps the fallen Amazon, who kneels limply, under her armpits so that the fallen Amazon's left arm is raised. The fallen Amazon wears a belted chiton that has slipped to expose her right breast. Her head falls onto her raised left arm. The original block has been reconstructed from many fragments, two of which are held at the National Museum in Athens (NM 4766-7 and 4777). Casts of the Athens fragments have 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 south 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.
nos. 1815,1020.20; 1815,1020.95; 1815,1020.308; 1815,1020.226 and NM 4766 and 4777 - 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 and Athens, National 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.