Block with Woman in Relief
- Date
- 1st or 2nd C. AD, Roman
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 315
- Museum Inventory No.
- 315
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- Manisa 315
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Sculpture
- Sculpture Type
- Other Architectural Piece, Human Figure, Draped Woman
- Site
- Sardis
- Findspot
- Sardis, 1947.
- Description
A priestess, praying with raised arms, stands on the end of a block. She wears a peplos, belted beneath the breasts, and an extra piece of cloth hangs diagonally across her chest. The drapery clings to both legs and falls in three heavy folds, one at each side, and one between the legs. She has bare feet. The head seems to have had the hair piled up on it, but all details are worn away.
There is a single raised frame and a receding background. The finished face of the r. side was exposed and worn. The l. side is rough with anathyrosis. Two dowel holes are on top at the l. side; the smaller is a regular bridge clamp.
The peculiarity of the piece's depth suggests that it may have been used in a temple or heroon wall; perhaps, since it has anathyrosis on only one side, it may have been placed at the corner of such a wall. The figures from the temple of Hadrian in the Campus Martius and on the attic of the wall of the Forum Transitorium in Rome, although stylistically not the same, are similar in the relationship of the figure to the block.
- Condition
Limestone-like marble.
Block preserved in entirety. Upper r. corner is worn.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.54; W. 0.43; D. 1.08. Large dowel hole: L. 0.10; W. 0.45; D. 0.04. Smaller dowel hole: 0.03 by 0.02 by 0.035 D.
- Comments
- See Also
- Bibliography
- For temple of Hadrian, see D. Strong, Roman Imperial Sculpture, fig. 83. For Minerva on Forum Transitorium wall, see Kähler, Art of Rome, 114.
- Author
- NHR