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Pausanias and the Stymphalian Birds1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. J. Ling
R. J. Ling
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
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Extract

‘In Stymphalos there is also an old sanctuary of Stymphalian Artemis. The image is of wood, mostly gilded. On the roof of the temple there are also representations of the Stymphalian birds. It was difficult to discern clearly whether they were made of wood or plaster, but my examination suggested that they were of wood rather than plaster.’

Pausanias' reference to the Stymphalian birds of the temple at Stymphalos was taken by the German scholar, Bliimner, to indicate that stucco reliefs were produced by the Greeks; and, despite the caution of Miss E. L. Wadsworth, 3 the inference that plaster was used for architectural sculptures of some form in Classical (or even pre-Classical) Greece has clearly been accepted by M. Cagiano de Azevedo and N. Bonacasa in the two great Italian encyclopedias of art.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , May 1973 , pp. 152 - 157
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1973

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References

page 152 note 2 H. Blümner, Technologie und Termino logic der Gewerbe and Künste bei Griechen und, Römern, ii (1879), 143 n. 1; R.E. vii, col. 2095.

page 152 note 3 M.A.A.R. iv (1924), 11.

page 152 note 4 Encyclopedia of World Art (Enciclopedi universale dell'arte), xiii, col. 630; E.A.A. vii 525. The term (Latin ‘gypsum’ or ‘gypsus’) covered both the mineral gypsun and the product of its calcination, plaste of Paris (calcium sulphate), which wa specially favoured in Hellenistic and Roma times for sculpture in the round and casting but some ancient writers, in addition, con fused gypsum with lime (calcium oxide) Theophr. De Lapidibus 68–9; Pliny, H.N. 36. 182; cf. E. R. Caley and J. F. C. Richards, Theophrastus on Stones (1956), pp. 210, 213–22 (which I find more convincing than D. E. Eichholz's commentary [1965], pp. 532 f.); E. L. Wadsworth, M.A.A.R. iv (1924), 18 n. 2. Lime is the basis of the more durable plaster used in Greek and Roman times mainly for wall-surfacing and (in Roman times) for relief decoration: it is to this that we normally apply the term ‘stucco’.

page 152 note 5 Pausanias says only that the sanctuary is old, not the temple-building. The temple is thought to have stood in the area now occupied by the ruins of the Katholikon, at the northern edge of the city: R.E. ivA, col. 450; N. D. Papachatzes, Pausaniou Hellados Periegesis, iv. Achaika kai Arkadika (1967), pp. 269 f., n. 4.

page 153 note 1 1. 40. 4. We must disregard the plaster statue mentioned in 9. 32. r, as Pausanias gives no indication of its date: it could quite easily be late-Hellenistic or Roman.

page 153 note 2 Murray, A. S., A History of Greek Sculpture (1880–1883), 117. Followed by J. G. Frazer, Pausanias's Description of Greece (1898), ii. 525.Google Scholar

page 153 note 3 Blümner, Technologie (see p. 152 n. 2), ii. 114, 145.

page 153 note 4 For references see E. and J. R. Harris, The Oriental Cults in Roman Britain (5965), p. 10 n. 6; N. Bonacasa in E.A.A. vii. 525, 526. Similar work is also known in Greece, but not before Roman times: F. Poulsen and K. Rhomaios, Erster vorläufiger Bericht ither die dänisch-griechischen Ausgrabungen von Kalydon Kongelige Dansk Videnskabernes Selskab. Historisk-filologiske Meddelelser, xiv, no. 3 [1927], PP. 57–73 (passim).

page 153 note 5 R. Martin, Manuel d'architecture grecque, i. Matériaux et techniques (1965), PP. 429–33. The prohibition of Solon recorded by Cicero (Leg. 2. 26. 65) clearly refers to plain plaster surfacing.

page 153 note 6 Encyclopedia of World Art, xiii, col. 630. I have found no evidence in support of this.

page 154 note 1 Bruno, V. J., A.J.A. lxxiii (1969), 308.Google Scholar

page 154 note 2 Ibid., pp. 316 f.

page 154 note 3 Most of the pre-Ptolemaic evidence comes from the second millennium: to the references cited by Wadsworth, art. cit., pp. 9 f., we may add the painted reliefs in the tombs of Queen Nefertari and Amenemopet (B. Porter and R. L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings, 2nd edn., i [1960–1964], 762–5, no. 66, and 259 f., no. 148; cf. K. Lange and M. Hirmer, Egypt, 4th edn. [1968], Plates 1.v-Lvm; J. Yoyotte, Treasures of the Pharaohs [1968], p. 157) and the masks from el-Amarna (Roeder, G., J.P.K.S. lxii [1941], 145–70)Google Scholar. There follows a long gap in the evidence, but this may well be due to the general paucity of archaeological material from this period. Prof. J. R. Harris, to whom I am grateful for guidance in an unfamiliar field, expresses the opinion that the proliferation of plaster work in Ptolemaic times was largely a native development from something already established. Indeed, at least one piece may possibly be datable to the first half of the fourth century: a cast in Munich that may be a portrait of Nectanebo I, who reigned 380–363 B.C. (Die ägyptische Sammlung des Bayerischen Staates [1966], sec. 66, no. 5339; Müller, H. W., Pantheon xxviii [1970] 89–92).Google Scholar

page 154 note 4 Edgar, C. C., J.A.O.L ix (1906), 31, Fig. 8; id., Sculptors' Studies (1906), pp. x-xii, 80–6; C. S. Ponger, Katalog der griechischen und rdmischen Skulptur, der steinernen Gegenstdnde und der Stuckplastik im Allard Pierson Museum zu Amsterdam (1942), pp. 88–95.Google Scholar

page 154 note 5 C. Watzinger, Griechische Holzsarkophage aus der Zeit Alexanders des Grossest (1905), pp. 32 f., 60, 75–7; C. C. Edgar, GraecoEgyptian Coffins (1905), pp. ii, x-6, nos. 33101–13, Plates I, II; E. Breccia, La necropoli di Sciatbi (1912), pp. 162 f., nos. 514–17, Plate lxxix.

page 154 note 6 See R. Pagenstecher, Die griechischägyptische Sammlung Ernst von Sieglin, i. Malerei und Plastik A (Expedition Ernst von Sieglin ii) (1923), pp. 93–113 (passim), though many of the items listed belong to the Roman period.

page 154 note 7 H.N. 35.153. See Appendix.

page 154 note 8 De Lapidibus 67. Eichholz, note ad loc., translates Cilfoiayp.a.ra as ‘seal-impressions’, but see Caley-Richards, op. cit., p. 219 (‘Impressions or moulds in general’).

page 154 note 9 A.Z. xxix (1872), 35; L. von Sybel, Katalog der Skulpturen zu Athen (1881), p. 208, no. 2921. The cemetery was in use from c. 394 B.C. A.Z. cit., P. 340

page 154 note 10 Watzinger, op. cit., passim (especially pp. 49 ff., 61 f.). The series continued into Roman times. Further sarcophagus ornaments (of unknown provenance) are in Munich, Antikensammlungen, 13000 and 13009.

page 155 note 1 See p. 154 n. 8.

page 155 note 2 Ponger, op. cit., pp. 89 f., no. 182 (cf. p. 92, no. 189).

page 155 note 3 E. Breccia, Alexandrea ad Aegyptum (English edn., 1922), p. 203, nos. 68, 69; Pagenstecher, op. cit., p. 97, no. 5 (with reference to Breccia, Le Musle Égyptien ii. 72, Fig. 3); A. Adriani, Annuaire du MusÉe Gréco-Romain 1933–34–1934–35 (Alexandria, 1936), p. 158, no. 5, Fig. 84.

page 155 note 4 M. Bulard, Mon. Piot, xiv (1908), 154–7, Fig. 52, Plate vinA; F. Courby, Exploration archéologique de Délos, v. Le Portique d' Antigone ou du Nord-Est et les constructions voisines (1912), p. 40, n. 2, Figs. 58, 59; Plassart, A., B.C.H. xl (1916), 247;Google ScholarDaux, G., B.C.H. lxxxiv (1960), 855; P. Bruneau and others, Exploration archéologique de Délos, xxvii. L' Ilot de le Maison des Gomédiens (1970), p. 157, Figs. 113–14 (are the bucrania in relief or merely indicated pictorially?).Google Scholar

page 155 note 5 T. Wiegand and H. Schrader, Priene (1904), p. 312, Fig. 341; cf. Bulard, op. cit., P. 157.

page 155 note 6 G. Kawerau and T. Wiegand, Altertümer von Pergamon, v, i. Die Paläste der Hochburg (1930), p. 51, Fig. 65.

page 155 note 7 Marin, M. D., Archivio storico pugliese, xvii (1964), 190–3, Figs. 16, 17. Some fragments are now in Taranto Museum.Google Scholar

page 155 note 8 Siga. Marin dates the villa to the 3rd century: ibid., pp. 220–4.

page 155 note 9 Wadsworth, E. L., M.A.A.R. iv (1924), 1–102. See more recently S. De Marinis in E.A.A. vii. 527–9; B. Andreae, in T. Kraus, Das röimische Weltreich (1967), pp. 215–18, Plates I 57–71.Google Scholar

page 156 note 1 R.E. vii, col. 2095. Cf. R.E. ivA, col. 452

page 156 note 2 Wadsworth, art. cit., p. II.

page 156 note 3 Encyclopedia of World Art, xiii, col. 630.

page 156 note 4 2. II. 2; 5. 10. 4.

page 156 note 5 I. 24. 5; 2. II. 8; 5. Jo. 6–8; 7. 26. 6 8. 45.6; g. II. 6; io. 19. 4.

page 156 note 6 5. 10. 4: they stand (‘on each end of the roof’).

page 156 note 7 Though, as Dr. Plommer has pointed out to me, well-painted wood (e.g. olive-wood) might survive in the open air for long periods.

page 157 note 1 The abbreviations used in this article are based on the list in A.J.A. lxxiv (1970), 3–8.Google Scholar