 |
||
|
|
||
Compte rendu par Iphigeneia Leventi, University of Thessaly Nombre de mots : 1708 mots Publié en ligne le 2019-10-31 Citation: Histara les comptes rendus (ISSN 2100-0700). Lien: http://histara.sorbonne.fr/cr.php?cr=3652 Lien pour commander ce livre
The present volume constitutes a sequel of the first volume by the same author on the relief monuments of Thasos (B. Holtzmann, Corpus des Reliefs I. Reliefs à theme divin. Études Thasiennes XV (Athènes-Paris 1994), where he studied the votive and architectural reliefs found on the island of Thasos. The new volume examines the votive and grave reliefs with heroic content from Thasos. These are represented in two basic compositional schemes: that of the riding horseman, and the banquet scene with a reclining hero. The study is therefore articulated in two sections, respectively.
The introduction clarifies the notion of the hero and heroisation in ancient Greek culture according to the current thesis of recent archaeological research and investigates the origins of the two iconographical traditions, that of the horseman and the banquet scene, first emerging in the Geometric and Archaic Greek Art based on the aristocratic habits of the early Greek society. The votive reliefs dedicated to a hero appear first and are substituted later, mainly from the late Hellenistic period to the late antiquity, by the funerary stelae erected for the heroised dead. These two categories may sometimes coexist in a monument or the function of an individual monument may be difficult to detect in some cases, due to the lack of an accompanying inscription. Furthermore, this transition is marked by the lower artistic quality of these artifacts especially during the Roman imperial period. Finally, the author briefly presents the ample testimonies for the existence of heroic cults inThasos.
The two main sections of the book are arranged in a similar manner. The extensive catalog entries are followed in each case by an iconographical commentary. The numbering is continuous from the earlier corpus of the Thasian votive reliefs (I, 1993) to the two sections of the present publication. The reliefs discussed in the current volume date from the early Classical period to the third century AD.
Section I. The theme of the horseman
The 52 horseman reliefs are divided into four groups according to their iconography, a) the majestic epiphany of the hero standing beside his non-moving horse, b) the horseman riding slowly, c) the galloping horseman depicted as a warrior, d) the horseman shown as a boar hunter. Each group is thoroughly investigated and its chronological development is followed in the corpus of the Thasian reliefs. However, the author also seeks the roots of this tradition in other Greek regions, namely in Attica, North Greece, the Aegean islands and the Pontic region, as well as Asia Minor, underlining, when extant, the local contribution to the formation of a certain iconographical type. The most frequently depicted type is that of the galloping horseman portrayed as a hunter, which appears in 39 relief monuments. The significant element here is the hunting of the boar, abbreviated by only showing the head of the animal, towards which the hunting rider is heading. Nevertheless, this group comprises some reliefs which depict the galloping hero alone, without the boar, while others are very fragmentary and thus the prey is missing. The author postulates that they all depict the boar hunter hero, represented in his full rendition, with the spear in his raised right hand and galloping swiftly towards the tree entwined by the snake and preceded by an altar, although in some cases the main theme may be simplified. However, the strangest case in this group of monuments is no. 133, which portrays a horseman with a spear in his raised hand riding slowly towards a seated female who brandishes a tree branch against him.
Clearly, the Thasian series with the hunting horseman is part of the great iconographic tradition that originated in the Balcan peninsula from the early Imperial period onwards, completing the image of the ‘Thrasian horseman”, as he is known in the Balcan peninsula interior and the Aegean Thrace.
The epigraphical attestation of reliefs with the charging boar hunter on Thasos are dedications to the Thracian hero/god Heron, a par-excellence hunter of the boar, adopting a youthful iconographical type, without a beard. The following analysis by the author suggests that during the first century BC in the multicultural artistic environment of either Thessaloniki or another Greek city in the Pontic gulf and the North Aegean with a prolific sculptural tradition, like Thasos, Thracian adorants of the god, possibly liberati, placed an order with a Greek artist for a depiction of Heron in his main mythical adventure, that of the boar hunt. This new iconographical type thereafter expanded to Macedonia, Pontus, the North Aegean, and from the mid-first century AD onwards to the Balcan interior and Thrace, forming an iconographical tradition that lasted until the mid-third century AD. Furthermore, the Thracian hero Heron furnishes the prototype for the portrayal of the heroised deceased, especially the youthful one in the guise of the riding horseman on his grave relief. Of course, there are exceptions to this generic rule, since on the grave reliefs nos. 132-133 the deceased is the least assimilated to the god Heron, being depicted bearded. Moreover, in my opinion, it remains an open question whether or not in other regions, especially of North Greece where there is no attestation of the Heron cult, the portrayal of a youthful horseman in a hunting scene without the boar on grave reliefs actually bears any relation to this archetypal heroic figure.
Section II. The theme of the banquet
The iconographical scheme of the banqueting hero on a votive relief is the most original creation of the Parian-Thasian workshop, first developed in the second half of the sixth century BC in the sculptural repertory of both the metropolis and the colony, under the social habits of the oriental aristocratic world, and later exported to Attica. The evidence is provided by the monumental late Archaic reliefs in the Paros and Istanbul Museums. In Thasos, the theme is amplified from the mid-fourth century onwards. Some examples in this group which comprises 175 reliefs, clearly exhibit Attic influence, while others are of local (Thasian) concept. The author meticulously studies the iconographical development of the compositions on these Thasian reliefs. He discusses the number of the persons portrayed, both the principal figures and the secondary ones, as well as their iconography. The main figure is the reclining hero who is accompanied by a seated female figure, always depicted veiled. This is his female companion, namely his consort, but her role is ambivalent and contradictory to the Greek banquet, where the wives of the male participants were absent, thus giving to these depictions the impression of a pseudo-banquet. The wine-pouring boy servant is another complementary person in these banquet scenes and appears in different positions, next to the crater or dinos containing the wine or arranging the fruits on the table set in front of banqueter’s couch. Sometimes two servants are depicted, symmetrically arranged on the edges of the representation. In the fourth century BC the scene may be enriched with adorants in the same size as the main figures or in miniature and in superimposed lines, just as the case is with the Attic votive reliefs. The typology of the couches and the tables, as well as that of the vases used in the banquet scene is also investigated.
Though the horizontal scheme of the composition contradicts the funerary typology of the stele shape, the transition from the votive banquet reliefs to the grave reliefs of the same iconographical type is facilitated in the second and first centuries BC by the addition of a high plinth below the relief panel, bearing the funerary inscription referring to the heroised dead person. In addition, and on the contrary with what occurs on similar relief scenes in Samos and Asia Minor during the Hellenistic period, the composition of the Thasian banquet reliefs is limited to its basic elements, thus facilitating the change from the votive to the funerary character of these monuments.
In the third century AD, these banquet reliefs are generally used for the portrayal of the couple or the family of the deceased. Moreover, it is this composition with its heroic connotations which survives in comparison with the horseman reliefs in the second half of the century. In that way, it is obvious that the aristocratic male ideal vanishes behind the emerging values of marital faith and family life, with the role of the woman being accentuated. These relief representations are characterised by a lacking artistic quality, but on the other hand, embody social ideals. This is however a general practice for similar monuments that occurs in other parts of the Greek world in the late antiquity. Finally, the author detects the existence of a last brilliance of the local Thasian sculptural tradition in two workshops, both situated on the SW side of the island, which produced banquet reliefs of similar mediocre quality during the first half of the third century
Appendix: I and II
Appendix I presents a relief of the early Imperial period depicting a coronation scene of a heroised intellectual figure who is crowned by a female personification in front of an altar, followed by two adorants. In Appendix II the author discusses a possibly commemorative 4th century relief with a nude youth bearing a chlamys, which may have depicted an extraordinary heroised person of the Thasian historical-mythical tradition, such as the city’s founder Theagenes, whose cult place, from the surroundings of which the fragmentary relief came to light, was situated in the Agora.
All in all, this book by B. Holtzmann is familiar with the most recent bibliographical treatises on the themes presented here. Furthermore, the volume is accompanied by high quality images for every discussed monument. The author presents a very interesting discussion, which provides solutions for relevant problems on the subject of heroic reliefs of the Greek world debated in modern research, and completes our understanding of the relief sculpture production of Thasos from the late Archaic period till the Late Antiquity. It will be certainly indispensable for every scholar studying the heroic reliefs of other Greek regions that are still unpublished or in the process of investigation.
|
||
|
Éditeurs : Lorenz E. Baumer, Université de Genève ; Jan Blanc, Université de Genève ; Christian Heck, Université Lille III ; François Queyrel, École pratique des Hautes Études, Paris |
||
