Centaur frieze of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos
- Title:
- Centaur frieze of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown (sculptors: Bryaxis, Leochares, Timotheus, Skopas
architects: Pytheos and Satyros)
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 350 BCE
2008 (image)
- Site:
- Bodrum (ancient Halikarnassos), Turkey (discovery site) (original)
- Location:
- Warehouse
Bodrum (ancient Halikarnassos), Turkey (discovery site) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0158
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 301
37 (pencil on th left side)
158 - File Name:
- CCC_0158.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 85 (H) x 140 (W) cm (complete slab)
- Culture:
- Greek, Carian
- Style/Period:
- Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Mausoleum (Halicarnassus)
Centauromachy (Greek mythology) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 89 x 88 x 5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of the viewer's left side of a relief slab from the Centaur frieze of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos. It is housed in the British Museum along with many other sculptural and building elements from the now-gone monument. The left and right sides of this slab were cast separately. On this portion of the block, a nude Greek, shown from behind with his head in profile, moves toward the left placing his weight on his bent left leg. With a now-missing (in the original) spear he holds in his right hand, he takes aim at a Centaur, whose tail can be seen at the left edge of this block. To the right, a woman in a belted chiton and himation runs toward the right striding forward with her left leg. She twists her body into frontal view and holds her arms out to the side. Her right breast is exposed. This is the only intact block from the Centaur frieze that survives. Scholars locate this frieze at the top of the Mausoleum's stepped roof, decorating the plinth supporting the chariot group that crowned the building. The Castle of St. Peter was built by crusaders of the order of the Knights of St. John (Hospitallers) in the 15th and 16th centuries reusing much of what remained of the Mausoleum. Many of the relief slabs were incorporated into the fortified building as decoration. Scholars continue to debate the form of the ornately decorated Mausoleum as well as the placement of much of the sculpture associated with it. British Museum 1032.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 1847,0424.6 - Bibliography:
- B. F. Cook, Bernard Ashmole, Donald Emrys Strong, Relief Sculpture of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)
Ian Jenkins, Greek Architecture and its Sculpture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 203-227 - Related Work:
- Belongs with ID no. 399 but cast separately from it.
- 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.