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Relief with head of bearded man, Metropolitan Museum of Art 26.199.278 (Photograph courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Gift of The American Society for the Excavation of Sardis, 1926)
Relief with Head of Bearded Man
Report 2: Sculpture from Sardis: The Finds through 1975
(1978)
Cat. 232
- Date
- 500-480 BC, Late Lydian (Persian)
- Museum
- New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 26.199.278
- Museum Inventory No.
- 26.199.278
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- MMA 26.199.278
- Material
- Marble, Stone
- Object Type
- Sculpture
- Sculpture Type
- Funerary Relief, Human Figure, Athlete
- Site
- Sardis
- Findspot
- From Sardis, exact findspot unknown. Presented by the American Society for the Exploration of Sardis, 1921-1922.
- Description
- The relief, which is probably from a funerary stele, was described by Richter, but renewed examination shows that the face is bearded and the nose big and elongated (cf. the bearded boxer, Richter, Archaic Gravestones, no. 31, fig. 92) The hairdo and short beard are in relief, and the outline of the ear and a large nostril may be discerned. The nose continues the slant of the forehead. The eye is large and convex. The hair-bolster (krobylos) is divided into five sections (cf. divisions in "Kritios boy," Richter, Kouroi, no. 190, figs. 564-565). The krobylos hairdo and profiled eye point to a date between 500-480 B.C. The piece has rather fine modeling. There seem to be back and forth strokes of a large claw chisel and a large point on the back.
- Condition
Large-grained, probably local, grayish white marble with reddish incrustation.
Broken along bottom of relief. Entire head re-attached. Broken across lower lip and chin. Top is near original H. but unfinished at upper r. corner. Surface heavily weathered.
- Dimensions
- H. 0.23; Th. 0.085, of background slab 0.046.
- Comments
- See Also
- Bibliography
- Published: Richter, Catalogue Greek Sculptures, 43, no. 41 , pl. 40. Cf. for style the relief from Kythnos, Berger, Basler Arztrelief, fig. 142. See also the Metropolitan Museum web site.
- Author
- NHR