Relief sculpture from the Harpy Tomb, west side
- Title:
- Relief sculpture from the Harpy Tomb, west side
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- Unknown
- Photographer:
- Alexandridis, Annetta
- Date:
- ca. 1890-1900
ca. 480–470 BCE
2009 (image)
- Site:
- Xanthos, Turkey (original)
- Location:
- Klarman Hall, first floor, south end
previously, Warehouse
Xanthos, Turkey (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0216
- Accession Number:
- Sage no. 82
1.Goldwin Smith Hall basementincised on right upper edge in front
Goldwin Smith Hall basement1 (black marker on back)
216 - File Name:
- CCC_0216.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 102.5 (H) x 57 (W) cm
- Culture:
- Lycian
- Style/Period:
- Greek Classical
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in relief (original) - Subject:
- Sepulchral Monuments
Xanthos (Ancient city) - Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- 103 x 49.5 x 5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
- Description:
- This is a cast of a seated woman from the viewer's left side of the west face of the Harpy Tomb at Xanthos, a tomb perhaps built for the Lycian ruler Kybernis. The figure is one of two enthroned women on the angle slabs of the west side of the tomb. The whereabouts of the cast of the second, located on the viewer's right side of the original, is unknown. The woman is shown in profile facing right. She sits on a chair with arms and worked legs, resting her feet on a footstool. She wears a billowy-sleeved chiton that clings at her chest to expose her large breast, a chlamys over her left arm, and a thick, pointed diadem on her head. Her wavy, archaic locks of hair fall to her upper back. Her hair is tied in the back in the original, but the cast is slightly curtailed on the side. Her right arm rests on the arm of the chair and in her right hand she holds a patera. Her left arm is raised but the hand, in which she likely held an object, is missing in the original. The Harpy Tomb, also referred to as the Harpy Monument, took the form of a sculpted square marble chamber tomb atop a tall limestone pillar and was one of many decorative Lycian tombs set atop tall bases. The marble chamber was removed from the limestone pillar and taken to the British Museum in 1842, where it is displayed today. A replica of the relief-carved chamber is in place on the original pillar at the site of Xanthos.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. 1848,1020.1 - Bibliography:
- Christin Rudolph, Das 'Harpyien-Monument' von Xanthos: seine Bedeutung innerhalb der spätarchaischen Plastik. BAR International Series 1108 (Oxford: John and Erica Hedges Ltd., 2003)
F. J. Tritsch, "The Harpy Tomb at Xanthus," JHS 62 (1942), 39-50
Ian Jenkins, Greek Architecture and its Sculpture (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006), 163-168 - Related Work:
- The west side of the Harpy Tomb is composed of three casts: ID nos. 215, 216, and 210. The whereabouts of a fourth cast, an enthroned woman from the viewer's right side of the original tomb, is unknown.
- 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.