Purchased in Rome in 1816.
Pentelic marble.
First century BCE.
Munich, Glyptothek.
H 30 1/2 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 871.
Long-term loan.
Cast Location: Concert Hall 2nd floor

The scene of which this relief is a part represents the wedding procession of Poseidon/Neptune and Amphitrite. In this part of the scene a nereid (sea-nymph) carrying a gift-box rides over the sea on a taurocamp with a snaky tail (half bull and half sea-creature). At one corner there is a pilaster. The right horn of the taurocamp and the left foot of the Nereid have been repaired in the plaster. According to Greek mythology, Poseidon wanted to marry the Nereid Thetis, but, upon learning that the child she bore would be greater than his father, he decided against it and instead pursued her sister Amphitrite to the Atlas Mountains, where she had hidden from him. He was successful in his courtship. Although Poseidon and Zeus had both been interested in Thetis, Zeus decided that Thetis should marry a mortal, and that was Peleus. Their son was Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War. This relief was discovered in the Campus Martius (Field of Mars) in Rome along with three other panels which were decorated with a marine procession of Tritons and Nereids celebrating the marriage of Poseidon and Amphitrite. They are now in Munich. This panel depicts a Nereid riding a sea-bull, bringing a present for the wedding of Poseidon and Amphitrite. Another portion of the relief is in the Louvre. The reliefs are now thought to have decorated the base of a statue-group honoring the naval victories of Mark Antony. Additional sections of the relief, now in Paris, are made of a different kind of marble, and represent the taking of the census along with a sacrifice to Mars.
~Shellie Meeks


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See Raimund Wünsche, Glyptothek München: Meisterwerke Griechischer und Römischer Skulptur (Munich, 2005), 120-121; Adolf Furtwängler, Beschreibung der Glyptothek König Ludwigs I. zu München (Munich, 1910), 248-252, no. 239. Fig. 2 Figs. No. 34 before and after restoration by Nick Xhiku. Photos by Andrew Zimmerman.]]> From Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli, 1735.
Luni Marble.
130-138 CE.
Rome, Villa Albani
no. 994.
H 20 ½ in., W 16 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 986.

This famous relief shows a profile view of Antinoos (110-130 CE), a boy from Bithynia who was lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian (ruled 117-138 CE). Antinoos is shown in a youthful idealized form, with thick curly short hair accented with a garland. In the restoration, he is partially draped in classical style, and he gazes at a garland that he holds in his left hand. In 130 CE Antinoos drowned mysteriously in the Nile, leaving a grief-stricken Hadrian, who promptly granted Antinoos an apotheosis. The emperor named a city after him (Antinoopolis), established a cult in his honor, his face was place on coins and medals, and statues and reliefs of him were scattered throughout the Roman empire to celebrate his memory. Usually Antinoos is depicted in the classical style. Images of him may bear a striking resemblance to one or more of the gods, such as Apollo, the god of truth, Dionysos, the god of wine, Vertumnus, the god of season and change, and even Osiris, the Egyptian god of the afterlife. Discovered in Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli in 1735, the piece was first owned by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, who had the relief restored in 1736 and took it to his home, the Villa Albani, on the outskirts of Rome. The fanciful modern restorations are missing from this broken plaster cast. Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who worked for Cardinal Albani, wrote enthusiastically about the relief. In 1798 the relief was taken as booty by the French and was recorded as being on display in the Musée in Paris in 1802-03. It was removed from the Musée in 1815 and returned to the Villa Albani.

~ Erin McGann and Stephanie LaSpada


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See Forschungen zur Villa Albani: Katalog der antiken Bildwerke I, ed. Peter C. Bol (Berlin, 1989), 336-338 and pls. 188-190; Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique (New Haven, 1981); Sarah Waters, "The Most Famous Fairy in History: Antinous and Homosexual Fantasy," Journal of the History of Sexuality 6.2 (Oct 1995), 194-230; Johann Joachim Winckelmann, History of the Art of Antiquity, trans. Henry F. Mallgrave (Los Angeles, 2006), 43 n. 34, 65, 245, 341. Figure. 35. Fig. Drawing of Antinoos relief as restored in the Villa Albani. See J. J. Winckelmann, History of the Art of Antiquity, trans. Harry Francis Mallgrave, p. 65 pl. 12.]]> Origin unknown.
Greenish limestone.
Date unknown, perhaps 4th century BCE.
London, British Museum.
Restored H 12 1/2 in., W 12 in.
Maximum dimension of preserved fragment 10 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 1185b or 1186.

The shallow relief shows a griffin attacking a deer that he has brought down. His wings are spread, his claws are fixed in the deer's shoulder, and he opens his beak wide to deal the fatal blow. The upper border consists of a geometric maeander; the lower border appears to contain rosettes within squares. This small fragment was given to the British Museum by Algernon Percy (1792-1865), the fourth Duke of Northumberland.


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See A. H. Smith, Catalogue of Greek Sculpture in the British Museum, vol. I (London, 1892), 88, no. 215 or 216.]]> Limestone.
Ca. 525-520 BCE.
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
H 41 inches.
No Metropolitan catalogue cast no.
Cast Location: Robinson B 2nd floor

Archaic Cypriote woman, missing her head and feet. She wears jewelry and her garments are rich with decorative details. She stands in a frontal pose, her left arm by her side and her right arm in front of her chest, holding all that remains of what was probably a lotus flower or a mirror. In her left hand she holds flowers or branches. She wears a ruffle-sleeved chiton, a long kilt, and a robe or himation to just below the breasts. The hems and edges of the sleeves and robe have folds that are Archaic in style. She wears four necklaces: a choker with small beads and a pendant that looks like a flame or an animal's head; a second necklace of larger beads; and the third and fourth with raised acorn pendants and an animal-headed pendant. A long neck-chain with a lyre-shaped pendant from which four signet-ring seals are suspended falls to below her waist. Her fingers are long, the nails crafted with detail. On her right wrist she wears a rope-like bracelet with animal's heads at either end, on the left wrist, a plain bracelet. Apart from a hint of long hair and buttocks, the back of the sculpture is relatively flat and plain. This sculpture was carved at a time when Egyptian rule over Cyprus was about to end. Egyptian influence is evident in the jewelry, pose, long fingers, and the remnants of the lotus flower that she holds as an offering. The figure was found in a temple at Kourion on Cyprus and probably represents a worshipper or priestess of the cult of Hathor (The Great Goddess), to judge from the exquisite execution of her fine garments and opulent jewelry.

~ Lara Ayad


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See Luigi Cesnola, A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art 2 vols. (New York, 1885), pl. XC; Vassos Karageorghis et al., Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 2000), 119-122.]]> Marble.
Classical, perhaps 4th century BCE.
Berlin, Altes Museum.
H 10½ in., W 22 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 908.
Long-term loan.

The relief with an owl, a serpent, and an olive tree is said to be a votive plaque dedicated to Zeus, who was sometimes worshipped in the form of a snake, but not with an owl and an olive as well. The iconography appears to be better suited to Athena, the patron deity of Athens, who gave the olive tree to Athens, and who is frequently shown with an owl and a snake. The plaque comes from the Zea, one of the harbors in the Peiraeus, the port of the city of Athens.


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See Berlin Museum, Beschreibung der antiken Skulpturen, no. 723.]]> Stone. Hellenistic or Roman. Location unknown.
6 1/2 x 22 in.
Not in Metropolitan cast catalogue.

The subject of this small relief, a Dionysiac/Bacchic festival, would have been an appropriate decoration for the edge of a sarcophagus-lid. At the right, grape vines twine overhead, and a satyr brings a basket of grapes to a vat in which another satyr tramples grapes. To the left of them, a fat elderly Silenos rides a horse or, more likely, a donkey towards the left. In front of this pair stands a woman, perhaps a maenad, then a tree covered with large-leaved vines, and, at the far left, a man and woman embrace. ]]> St. Nicholas parish church
Barfreston, eastern Kent, England.
Stone.
Norman, later 12th century CE.
Barfreston. 33 x 50 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 1544.

St. Nicholas parish church in Barfreston, Kent, was a stopping-place for pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. The artists of Kent were well aware of what their counterparts were doing to decorate churches in western France. However, the scenes of Medieval life, the creatures, and the religious symbols above this doorway are unique to Kent. This ornately decorated parish church has perhaps the finest assortment of Norman carvings in England. The archway from which this plaster cast was taken is located above the south door of the church. In the center of the tympanum, Christ sits within a mandorla, his right hand raised in a sign of peaceful blessing, his left holding a scroll, probably representing the Bible. To either side of him, along the ground-line, are mermaids, a griffin, and a sphinx, all entwined in foliage. Above them are various torsos and crowned heads surrounded by vines, and, at the top there are angels with scrolls. Above the mandorla is a leafy molding, then one with a bishop's head at the center and medallions to either side showing various creatures, some of them playing musical instruments. At the top, the widest band shows signs of the zodiac and the labors of the months.

~ John L. Gardner and Tina Delis


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See www.barfreston.org.uk; and David Ross, "Barfreston, St. Nicholas Church," www.britainexpress.com/attractions.htm?attraction=3309#heritage.]]> Location unknown.
Stone.
Norman (?)
H 16 1/4 in.
Not in Metropolitan cast catalogue.

The bat's spread wings fill the triangular space called the spandrel above the curve of a stone arch.]]> Notre-Dame-du-Port, Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, France.
Sandstone.
13th century.
Notre-Dame-du-Port.
L 63 in., maximum H 31 in., minimum H 16 in.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Cast no. 1449.
Purchased for GMU at Sotheby's New York, February 28, 2006.

Notre-Dame-du-Port is a basilica that was first built during the 7th century. The church is in the region of the Auvergne in central France. This is a section of the lower right side of the triangular portion of this oddly shaped composite tympanum over the south entrance to the Romanesque cathedral of Notre-Dame du Port. For his baptism, Christ is immersed to the waist in stylized water. A kneeling angel to the right holds his clothes, and a now-headless John the Baptist to the left holds onto Christ's arm. On the actual tympanum, two other scenes from Christ’s early life are carved on the triangular portion, to the left of this one– the Adoration of the Magi on the left, and the presentation of Christ in the temple at the center. In the semicircular portion of the tympanum, Christ in Majesty is enthroned above the three scenes from his life. A descriptive inscription surrounds the entire frame of the triangular pediment. The tympanum was painted, and some paint remains on the original, including a blue background. Much of the damage done to the tympanum occurred during the French Revolution.

~Anna Jones


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See Ian Robertson, Blue Guide: France (New York, 1984), 544. Figure. 42. Fig. 42 before cleaning. Fig. Notre-Dame du Port, two-part tympanum. Image by Kristobalite, flickr.com, 2008.]]> Wood.
1437-1521 CE.
St. Maclou, Rouen.
Metropolitan Catalogue: Casts no. 2103.
Purchased for GMU at Sotheby's New York, February 28, 2006.
Cast Location: Art and Design Building 2nd floor

These two reliefs are from the left door of the west façade of the Gothic church of St. Maclou. The reliefs date to 1540-1541; the rest of this door dates to about 1555-1560. Carved wooden panels like this ornament the five doors on the western side of the church. The panels are carved in the Late Gothic, or Flamboyant, style. This style is characterized by highly decorative architecture and was the last phase of Gothic architecture before the Renaissance. All the door panels of the church are attributed to sculptor Jean Goujon (c. 1510-c. 1568), and they are considered to be his earliest works. a. 57 x 75 in. An overall geometric design consisting of squares and circles encloses an abundance of intricate pastoral imagery. The central panel shows a farmer working in a wooded area with a castle in the background. Among the numerous figures framing the panel are half-women, bulls, moon-shaped male profile heads, garlands, and two youths holding drapery. Within the top border, a shepherd herds his animals in a wooded setting, and two children hold bouquets of flowers, fruits, and leaves.

~ Lucy R. Miller,  Anna Jones and Tina Delis


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Figure. Fig. Detail of no. 43a before cleaning. See Ian Robertson, Blue Guide: France (New York, 1984), 118.]]>