Frieze of the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos
- Title:
- 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
2009 (image)
- Site:
- Bodrum (ancient Halikarnassos), Turkey (discovery site) (original)
- Location:
- Warehouse
Bodrum (ancient Halikarnassos), Turkey (discovery site) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0225
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 301
15 in red on upper right front
15 in greene on upper right side
18 (or 8?) carved into upper left front
225 - File Name:
- CCC_0225.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 90 (H) x 215 (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)
Amazonomachy - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 89 x 78.5 x 5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of the viewer's right side of a relief slab from the Amazon 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, right, and middle sections of this slab were either cast separately or later sawn apart. On this section of the block, a bearded Greek, nude except for the chlamys wrapped around his left forearm that billows behind him and the scabbard strap that crosses his chest, lunges forward to kill an Amazon to the right who is on her knees. He is shown mostly in three-quarter view. He supports his weight on his bent left leg and pushes forward toward the right with his extended right leg. He grabs the Amazon's hair and pushes her face back with his left hand. The empty scabbard at his left thigh strongly suggests that he holds his sword in his missing (in the original) right arm with which he is about to kill the Amazon. The Amazon, in a belted chiton, is on her knees facing the Greek. She reaches her right hand up to him, begging him to spare her. 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. While scholars continue to debate the form of the ornately decorated Mausoleum as well as the placement of much of the sculpture associated with it, the Amazonomachy frieze is securely located at the top of the monument's high podium. British Museum 1022.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 1865,0723.1 - 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:
- ID nos. 222, 100, and 225 are the left, center, and right sections of the same relief block.
- 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.