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_0768b
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 290
- File Name:
- CCC_0768b.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 144 (W) cm (complete block)
- 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 the viewer's right side of a slab from the Ionic frieze of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai showing warriors at the conclusion of battle. At the viewer's right, an Amazon in a belted chiton faces front and moves right on her bent right leg. She drags a shield behind her with her right hand. The inside of the device is visible and the viewer's left half of it is contained in the left side of the slab, which was cast separately from the right. To the right, a wounded Greek is helped from the battlefield by his compatriot. The wounded man is nude and is shown in almost frontal pose. He probably supported himself with a now-missing (in the original) spear that he held in his raised left hand. His right arm is around the shoulders of his companion, who is also shown in almost frontal view, wears an exomis, and holds a shield on his left arm. The pair moves slowly to the right. A small fragment of the original from the top right of the Amazon's shield, missing in this cast, is held in Athens (NM 5144). A cast of the fragment has been incorporated into the original as displayed at the British Museum. The east and south sections of the frieze were devoted to scenes of battle between Amazons and Greeks. 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.
1815,1020.14, slab 539 (right half) - 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 - Related Work:
- The left and right sides of this block were cast separately. The left half of the block is SSID 512939.
- 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.