Sculptured pedimental block from Building H at Xanthos (right half)
- Title:
- Sculptured pedimental block from Building H at Xanthos (right half)
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 460-450 BCE
2008 (image)
- Site:
- Xanthos, Turkey (original)
- Location:
- Warehouse
Xanthos, Turkey (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0043
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 78
27 carved on front
78 (sticker on front)
43 - File Name:
- CCC_0043.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 96 (H) x 96 (W) cm
- Culture:
- Lycian
- Style/Period:
- Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
limestone sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Xanthos (Ancient city)
Sphinxes (mythology) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 99.1 x 101.6 x 5.1-6.4 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of the viewer's right half of a relief-decorated triangular limestone slab from Xanthos, the pediment of a building identified as Building H, perhaps a cult building or a tomb. The block is broken in two in the original with a section missing from the center. As a whole, two sitting sphinxes flank a false door with recessed moldings on the lintel of which sit two facing lions. In this right half of the slab, a sphinx in profile facing left sits at attention facing a door jamb. Her head and face are nestled in the angle formed by the meeting of the right door jamb and the lintel. She wears a broad fillet on her head and her hair is twisted up in the back with a loop of hair at her temples. She has well-articulated eyelids, a long nose, and a full chin. Her wings are large and depicted as smooth on top with a layer of long feathers below. Her breast is bare. The sphinx's lion-body is muscular and wiry, her front legs are thickly muscled. Her tail curls up to form an s. The false doorway she faces consists of several squared moldings that recede to the now-missing (in the original) flat plane of the door. A sinewy lion sits atop the lintel. His tail curls up to form a loop. The front of his body, including his head, is missing in the original. The function of Building H is unknown, but it has been proposed that the building was used for cult instead of funerary purposes. This triangular pedimental block was discovered broken in two and reused in a late antique wall on the acropolis at Xanthos.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
1848,1020.25 - Bibliography:
- Ian Jenkins, Greek Architecture and its Sculpture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 168-174
John Boardman, Greek Sculpture: The Late Classical Period and Sculpture in Colonies and Overseas (London: Thames and Hudson, 1995), 188-190
Antony G. Keen, "The dynastic tombs of Xanthos--who was buried where?" Anatolian Studies 42 (1992), 53-63 - Related Work:
- Belongs with ID no. 35.
- 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.