Museum/Current place of storage: |
Neapolis Voion, Archaeological Museum (formerly in the garden of the Sparta Archaeological Museum). |
Inv. no: |
- |
Dimensions: |
|
Material: |
- |
Findspot: |
In 1908 “in a corner plot” on the left of the main street of the town of Neapolis (Vatika), leading from the shore, together with the headless portrait statue {https://achaeanwomen.eie.gr/γλυπτό/?statue_id=846}, an inscribed block of marble (IG V 1, 957a-b), and a seated figure, which was buried again. Earlier in the same plot another inscribed marble block (IG V 1, 956), and the lower part of a male standing figure (with feet and lower part of legs) had been found. From the above, and based on the inscriptions, it can be deduced that all belonged to a family statue group (see Wace – Hasluck 1908, 171; Rizakis et al. 2004, cat. nos. LAC 383, 392 and 488 with bibliography). |
Original Display Location: |
Unknown. |
Date: |
Second quarter of the 2nd c. CE (the dating is consistent with the letter form on the inscription, dated to the 2nd c. CE – cf. IG V 1, 956-957a-b). |
Statuary Type (body) : |
Combination of the so-called “Artemisia/Delphi” and “Olympia/London” types (both versions of the so-called “Orans/Supplicant”). |
Mode of Self-Representation (head): |
- |
Civic Presence (Social Role Represented): |
Member of an elite family of Boiai. It represents either Iulia Philocratis or Iulia Claeaneta, daughter and wife respectively of the dedicator, C. Iulius Thraseas (IG V 1, 957a-b; Rizakis et al. 2004, cat. no. LAC 383 and 392). Part of a larger family statue group that also included the dedicator’s father-in-law, C. Iulius Panthales, son of Euenor (IG V 1, 956; Rizakis et al. 2004, cat. no. LAC 488), as well as without a doubt the dedicator himself (see Rizakis et al. 2004, cat. no. LAC 511). |
Inscribed Base: |
Yes (IG V 1, 956-957a-b). |
Author: |
Panagiotis Konstantinidis |
Added: |
2024-09-19 |
Edited: |
Description - Comments:
Most of the figure is preserved, with the exception of the inset head, the inset left forearm (traces of a dowel hole are preserved on the broken surface of the marble), and the right arm, broken at about the elbow. The front and left part of the rectangular plinth is broken. Smaller breaks and chipping are attested sporadically on the surface of the marble. The statue depicts a standing, frontal female figure wearing a long chiton, a long himation that covers most of the body, and closed leather shoes (calcei muliebres). The weight of the body falls on the left leg, while the right leg is slightly bent, without being carried sideways. The himation covers both shoulders as well as the back of the right biscep, then passing under the right arm (at about elbow height) and hugging the abdomen tightly; its end falls over the extended left forearm (both the surface of the joint of the inset forearm and the ending part of the himation that fell over and beyond it along the left part of the torso are not preserved). On the left, the himation covers the shoulder and biscep, its hem passing between the figure's elbow and torso, and ending on the left hip. On the front of the figure, a second portion of the himation rises behind the rectangular mass of the garment over the belly and hugs tightly the left breast. The wrapping of the himation (with the exception of the small part that tightly hugs the left breast), as well as the balancing of the body's weight, and the positioning of the legs, follow faithfully the statuary type of the so-called “Orans/Supplicant”, as known from its earliest appearance in the portrait statue of the so-called “Artemisia” from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (London, British Museum, inv. no. 1857,1220.233 – G. B. Waywell, The Free-Standing Sculptures of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in the British Museum, London 1978, 103-104, no. 27, ca. 350 BC; for the “Artemisia/Delphi” format see S. Dillon, The Female Portrait Statue in the Greek World, Cambridge 2010, 70-78). On the contrary, the motif of the part of the himation rising behind the rectangular mass of the garment over the belly and hugging tightly the left breast is attested again in a variant of the “Artemisia/Delphi” type, the so-called “Olympia/London” type; nevertheless, the “Olympia/London” variant - considered a creation of the early imperial period and known from only three examples in the whole of the Empire – sports a quite different placement of the himation on the left shoulder (cf. e.g. the portrait statue of Agrippina the Younger from the Olympia Nymphaeum, Olympia Archaeological Museum, inv. Λ143 [see K. Hitzl, Die kaiserzeitliche Statuenausstattung des Metroon, Berlin 1991, cat. no. 3, pls. 14c–19, 39b, 40c; P. Konstantinidis, Γυναικείοι δυναστικοί εικονιστικοί ανδριάντες αυτοκρατορικής περιόδου από την Ελλάδα (τέλη 1ου αι. π.Χ. – 5ος αι. μ.Χ.), Athens 2024, 336-338, cat. no. Γ16, εικ. 291-301]; for the type see A. Alexandridis, Die Frauen des römischen Kaiserhauses: eine Untersuchung ihrer bildlichen Darstellung von Livia bis Iulia Domna, Mainz am Rhein 2004, 258, no. 2.2.20). Based on the above, the statue from Boiai must be identified either as a variant of the “Artemisia/Delphi” or the “Olympia/London” type, or as a combination of the two types. Stylistically, the statue is close to the other surviving statue of the same family group {Γ146} (based on stylistic parallels both works can be dated to the second quarter of the 2nd c. CE – see in {Γ146}). Good quality of workmanship. Probably the work of an Attic workshop.
Bibliography:
A.J.B. Wace, F.W. Hasluck, “Laconia II. Topography”, BSA 14 (1908), 171, no. 4, fig. 1c (left); A.D. Rizakis, S. Zoumbaki, Cl. Lepenioti, Roman Peloponnese II. Roman Personal Names in Their Social Context, Athens 2004, cat. no. LAC 383 and 392; A. Maltezou, Ch. Kakourou, N. Palaiologou, Έκθεση του Αρχαιολογικού Μουσείου Νεάπολης Βοιών, Εφορεία Αρχαιοτήτων Λακωνίας, Sparta 2015, 7 fig. (first figure from the left); Ephorate of Antiquities of Laconia, Archaeological Imprints, Work 2015-2018, Sparta 2018, 18 (fig. at the bottom of the page, first statue from the left);
https://arachne.dainst.org/entity/1089850?fl=20&q=Sparta&resultIndex=148