Relief sculpture from the Harpy Tomb, west side
- Title:
- Relief sculpture from the Harpy Tomb, west side
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 480–470 BCE
2009 (image)
- Site:
- Xanthos, Turkey (original)
- Location:
- Klarman Hall, first floor, south end
previously, Warehouse
Xanthos, Turkey (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0215
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 82
Goldwin Smith Hall basement2 (black marker in back)
215 - File Name:
- CCC_0215.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 53 (H) x 41 (W) cm
- Culture:
- Lycian
- Style/Period:
- Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Sepulchral Monuments
Xanthos (Ancient city) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 48 x 44.5 x 5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of a cow suckling her calf from the viewer's center left of the west side of the Harpy Tomb at Xanthos, a tomb perhaps built for the Lycian ruler Kybernis. The cow is shown in profile facing left. Her head is missing in the original. The calf, also depicted in profile, kneels on its front legs underneath the cow and lifts its head up to suckle. This slab, an extension of the upper left side of the central slab in the original (see ID no. 210), functioned as a door lintel, sitting above a now-missing door that would have afforded access to the interior of the tomb. The cow faces the enthroned woman on the left angle slab (ID no. 216) and the lower portion of the stone rests in a cutaway atop the patera the woman holds. The Harpy Tomb, also referred to as the Harpy Monument, took the form of a sculpted square marble chamber tomb atop a tall limestone pillar and was one of many decorative Lycian tombs set atop tall bases. The marble chamber was removed from the limestone pillar and taken to the British Museum in 1842, where it is displayed today. A replica of the relief-carved chamber is in place on the original pillar at the site of Xanthos.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 1848,1020.1 - Bibliography:
- Christin Rudolph, Das 'Harpyien-Monument' von Xanthos: seine Bedeutung innerhalb der spätarchaischen Plastik. BAR International Series 1108 (Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd., 2003)
F. J. Tritsch, "The Harpy Tomb at Xanthus," JHS 62 (1942), 39-50
Ian Jenkins, Greek Architecture and its Sculpture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 163-168 - Related Work:
- The west side of the Harpy Tomb is composed of three casts: ID nos. 215, 216, and 210. The whereabouts of a fourth cast, an enthroned woman from the viewer's right side of the original tomb, is unknown.
- 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.