• r2-225-10
    Table leg, male figure standing against pillar, front view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Table Leg, Male Figure Standing against Pillar

Date
1st half of 3rd C. AD?, Roman
Museum
Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 2235
Museum Inventory No.
2235
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
S58.049
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Sculpture
Sculpture Type
Furnishing, Human Figure
Site
Sardis
Sector
HoB
Trench
HoB
Locus
HoB House of Bronzes Room 7
B-Grid Coordinates
basement floor
Findspot
HoB, found standing on floor in SE corner of room 7 (basement).
Description

A nude standing male figure, leaning against a pillar, has a piece of drapery slung across his l. shoulder, around back, and across his r. thigh. Weight is on the l. leg, his r. leg forward. His l. hand clasps the drapery near his chest, the r. hand holds onto it lightly at the thigh. The lower arm was worked fully in the round. Although the face is almost completely smashed away, the hair, parted and drawn back into a knot, remains largely intact. At each side a long lock falls on his shoulder, although that on his l. is obscured by the drapery, and by the turn of the head to that side. In his hair on the r. is a sketchy flower or bunch of grapes.

Modeling is summary, with hard, angular chiseled outlines. The linea alba is a sharply chiseled line. Pillar, base, and statue are all of one piece of stone. The dowel hole in the top of the pillar was for attaching the tabletop. The back of the pillar was evenly rough-picked; the underside of the base has rough anathyrosis.

Although the type is that of a classical Apollo, the bunch of grapes or flowers suggests that this is Bacchus. Since the pagan figure was found in the Christian “House of Bronzes,” the face may have been smashed on purpose. The sketchy, superficial workmanship, meant for architectural decoration, is probably from the 1st half of the 3rd C. to ca. A.D. 300. The absence of drilling favors an earlier date.

Dimensions
Max. H. 0.895; H. of statue 0.75; H. of base at back 0.12, at front 0.09. Pillar: H. 0.77; W. at top 0.155, at bottom 0.19; D. at top 0.09, at bottom 0.05 (i.e. pillar spreads toward bottom in W., but tapers in D.). Dowel in top of pillar 0.03 by 0.25, 0.033 D.
Comments
See Also
Bibliography
Published: BASOR154, 27; Hanfmann-Detweiler, New Explorations 1959, fig. 13; Hanfmann-Detweiler, Sardis, Capital 1959, 925, fig. 6; M. J. Mellink, Archaeology in Asia Minor 1960, 67 and pl. 13, fig. 12.
Author
NHR