Heraklion Archaeological Museum - CollectiveAccess System : Sculptures : Statue of a peplophoros [Γ2]

Statue of a peplophoros

Γ2

White marble

Missing the separately worked arms from forearm height. Nose, part of lips and right foot broken.

Total height: 191 cm. Height of figure: 183.5 cm.

Kissamos

Decorated the Chania Municipal Gardens after 1870

Roman period:

2nd c. AD:

Gallery:

XXVII

Case:

Not in case

Exhibition thematic unit:

Sculpture. Hellenistic period (3rd-2nd c. BC) Roman period (1st c. BC-3rd c. AD)

Statues of mortals

Description

Statue of a standing female figure on an integral plinth, a Roman copy of an Attic original of the Severe Style of the Classical period. It depicts a frontal young woman, dressed in a chiton (tunic) which is only visible on the upper arms, and a long, girdled peplos with deep, fluted folds on the lower body. On the upper body, the peplos is folded at the neck and falls symmetrically over the breast and down the back in an overfold called the apoptygma. The head was inset, worked in different, better-quality marble. The face with its severe features is crowned with a symmetrical hairstyle, with the hair twisted around a hidden band and caught up from the ears to the nape of the neck. The arms were also separately made, judging from the treatment at the joins and the locations of the iron dowels securing them. The left arm fell loosely and diagonally downwards, while the right was held out from the body, holding an object, perhaps an offering vessel. Due to the good quality of workmanship and the intact state of preservation of the statue, this statue type is known in the bibliography as the “Peplophoros of the Candia type”. It preserves the proportions of the Classical original: total height 100 digits, height of head 1 foot, height of apoptygma 1 cubit, height of bottom part of peplos 2.5 cubits. The rough shaping of the back indicates that it was a decorative element set against a wall or in a niche of what was probably a public building.

Bibliography:

L. Mariani, CRETA. Memoriae d’un viaggio nell’interno dell’Isola (CIRAAS 5), Roma 2005, Quaderno 2, 1-2. G. Lippold, Die Griechische Plastik, HdArch III 1,München 1951, 132-133. R. Tolle-Kastenbein, Fruhklassische Peplosfiguren. Typen und Repliken, AntPl 20, Berlin 1986, no. 50α, 19-26, pl. 1-8.P. Karanastasi, "Η πλαστική της Κρήτης στην αυτοκρατορική περίοδο", in Th. Stefanidou-Tiveriou - P. Karanastasi - D. Damaskos (eds), Κλασική παράδοση και νεωτερικά στοιχεία στην πλαστική της Ρωμαϊκής Ελλάδας. Πρακτικά διεθνούς συνεδρίου, Thessaloniki 7-9 Μαϊου 2009, Thessaloniki 2012, 437-8. P. Karanastasi, "Roman imperial sculpture from Crete: a reappraisal," in Francis, J.E.- Kouremenos, A. (eds.), Roman Crete. New perspectives, Oxford 2016, 103.

Author:

K. S.

Photographs' metadata