Kourayos, Yannos - Prost, Francis (éd.): La sculpture des Cyclades à l’époque archaïque. Histoire des ateliers, rayonnement des styles. Actes du colloque international organisé par l’Éphorie des antiquités préhistoriques et classiques des Cyclades et l’École française d’Athènes (7-9 septembre 1998), Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique Supplément 48
Format 18,5 x 24 cm, 578 p., ill. n/b et coul.
ISBN 978-2-86958-245-5
prix: 80 euros
(École française d’Athènes 2008)
 
Compte rendu par Iphigeneia Leventi, University of Thessaly
 
Nombre de mots : 2342 mots
Publié en ligne le 2008-10-28
Citation: Histara les comptes rendus (ISSN 2100-0700).
Lien: http://histara.sorbonne.fr/cr.php?cr=454
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This volume comprises the acts of an international conference which was held at Athens in 1998 under the auspices of the Ephoreia of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of the Cyclades and the École Française d’Athènes, with the participation of many scholars specialized in Archaic sculpture from the Cyclades. Such a conference and its proceedings, which unfortunately appeared with a 10 years delay only, are a valuable contribution to the study of a region whose sculptural production in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. and beyond, played a significant role in the development of the monumental marble Greek sculpture and the emergence of its Early Classical phase, as the editors acknowledge in the preface (which may justify the inclusion of the Severe Style material in the volume as well). The communications published in the volume, in French, English, German, Italian and Greek, shed new light on this long procedure and raise new critical questions that advance the scholarly debate around major issues: the priority or not of Crete in the process of transmitting Near Eastern and Egyptian inheritance, and the birth of Greek monumental sculpture, as well as the competition between major centres of production on Naxos and Paros, which flourished not only because of the rich and excellent marble quarries but also as a result of their strong political organization. These island city-states which strived for their domination both in Panhellenic sanctuaries such as Delos and Delphi and among other regions in Greece and the Mediterranean, left their stamp on the early phases of sculptural production at Samos and  Athens, both through the exportation of their marble and the circulation of their artists. These developments were discussed in the light of new material excavated especially on Paros and earlier forgotten finds that were now brought forth. A broader selection of types is presented such as animals and Parian reliefs, but architectural sculpture is conspicuously lacking. The volume has a brief but elucidating conclusion by such a connoisseur of the Greek sculpture as the late Claude Rolley to whose memory it is dedicated. It is accompanied by abstracts of the communications in French, English and Greek. Indeed it was a good idea of the editors to include at the end of the volume figures of sculptures to which most of the contributors refer, but the spectacular new Gorgo in the Paros Museum could have also been illustrated there. Literature and finds later that the 1998 conference have unfortunately not been incorporated in the articles (as exemplified below), some of which are presentations of finds and other lengthy treatises on special issues, all arranged in thematic sections, though they sometimes overlap.

Elena Walter-Karydi discusses the well-known bronze relief sheets from the Heraion on Samos, Argos, Delphi and Olympia, assigning them to Parian workshops due to stylistic, compositional and iconographical comparisons with Parian marble reliefs and painted pottery. Photeini N. Zapheiropoulou presents the recent conspicuous finds excavated outside the walls of the ancient city of Paros, the most important being a new type, the Gorgo statue landing with opened wings on a ridge tile, possibly an akroterion from an unknown temple of ca. 580 B.C.; she also refers to the fragmentary early Classical grave relief of a kore, confirming the Parian origin of a number of early 5th-century marble reliefs in various museums. Bernard Holtzmann sheds light on an earlier find from Thasos, a worn kouros head, whose stylistic assessment brings to the recognition of both Parian and Chian features thus introducing the discussion on works reflecting the impact of more than one regional workshops. The article by Yannos Kourayos gives a contextualized overview of the recent finds in ancient Paros, one of the most productive workshops of Archaic and Early Classical sculpture.


The long article by Matteo d’Acunto challenges the “diffusion theory”, that one centre, either Crete or the Cyclades, was responsible for the creation and diffusion of the main types of the first Greek sculptural production, suggesting rather that the two regions have different and parallel sculptural traditions. Both Crete and Naxos developed sculptural production in stone to meet the needs of the local aristocratic societies in their own way, while the theory of the priority of Crete is largely the result of its better dated limestone sculpture in comparison with local Daedalic terracotta statuettes. Naxos on the other hand declared its political ambitions through major architectural and sculptural dedications which implemented in the late 7th and first half of the 6th century the form of the SW corner of the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos, possibly the seat of a Panionian island amphictyony. Furthermore d’Acunto suggests the presence of an early Parian colossal kouros on Delos in the evidence of a base in the British Museum, an assumption that has not been explored by other contributors dealing with early Parian sculptural activity on Delos (e.g. Croissant). The diffusion of sculptural motives from Crete to Naxos is revisited by A. Hermary focusing on the problem of the belted kouroi in the Cyclades. He shows the typological dependence of these belts from those worn by Daedalic Cretan korai and seated female figures and interprets the belt on the kouroi as a sign of elevated nature, either of a hero, a heroised deceased or a god. Interestingly, Hermary raises the question of Naxian kouroi (the colossus of the Naxians and kouros A33 on Delos) as possibly 6th -century copies of earlier Deadalic creations, based on their progressive anatomical details.


Anna Maria d’Onofrio discusses the relation of the early Attic kouroi of the Sounion group, which she dates in the late 7th century B.C., to early Naxian kouroi, suggesting that the former have been made with the collaboration of itinerant Naxian sculptors. Her comparisons seem to me, however, rather farfetched. The new kouros excavated in the Athenian Kerameikos is just mentioned at the end of the article in a separate note. Katerina Karakasi assigns the Lyon Kore to the Parian production and possibly to Aristion’s workshop, the sculptor of Phrasikleia. The affinity of the Lyon kore with the Parian kore from Naousa is not very evident, while one could comment on the robust upper body structure of the Lyon Kore as an Attic stylistic feature displayed by both the earlier Keratea kore and the later Antenor kore. Karakasi concludes her study with her familiar subject of the polychromy on Phrasikleia. Both of these articles support the theory of the strong Cycladic component of the Attic workshop, thus challenging the traditional definition of a regional sculptural workshop. The article by Jean Marcadé offers a final reassessment of the unique sculptural group of the Agora theon on Delos, which he assigns to the period when the Peisistratids sought control of the Delian sanctuary. The scholar underlines the relation of this sculptural assemblage in human size to the iconography on contemporary vase-paintings, and affirms its technical competence that shows the way toward Hellenistic colossal marble sculpture. F. Croissant contributes with a long discussion on the early Cycladic korai and kouroi. This article suggests that the kore by Nikandre was contemporary with the earliest Naxian kouroi, a thesis also supported by the latest German scholarship on the subject which is, however, not mentioned (C. Bol, ed., Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst 1. Frühgriechische Plastik, 2002). Croissant makes the interesting observation that Naxian sculptors specialized in the first half of the 6th century B.C. in the manufacture of kouroi for the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos. At the same time Parian sculptors made korai for the sanctuary of Artemis on the island, and only from the third quarter of the century began producing kouroi to be dedicated to Apollo. He seeks an explanation for these changes in the political situation on Naxos after the rise of Lygdamis and the intrusion of Athenians under Peisistratos in the sanctuary on Delos, as well as the association of the local cults of the two islands, the Parians having a tradition in venerating female deities in their island, in contrast to the Naxians who venerated Apollo at their home city.

Kenneth A. Sheedy presents the kouros British Museum B 325 excavated in a rock-cut tomb at Marion on Cyprus where it was found mutilated and leaning against the door of the chamber. The Marion kouros is indeed the only marble kouros known to come from a Cypriote grave, while stable isotopic analysis of its marble and stylistic assessment proves it to be Parian. The author studies the peculiar burial custom with which this kouros was associated trying to establish a connection to similar Cypriot and North Greece grave practices and the impact of New Eastern and Egyptian contexts. Wolf-Dieter Heilmeyer revisits the forgotten Berlin torso of a Naxian kouros. Francis Prost offers a long article on the workshop relations of three early Naxian kouroi from Delos, the most famous being the kouros torso A 4085+ A 4293. Though they differ slightly in size and graphical rendering of the surface they are persuasively proved to be contemporary creations from the same Naxian workshop working in situ in the first half of the 6th century B.C. and using the same metrological system. This new perspective challenges the traditional method of dating or assigning to regional workshops Archaic sculptures according to their surface treatment.

Ismene Triante publishes a fragmentary Late Archaic horse recently found in Paros in comparison with an earlier-known one, suggesting the possibility that they both come from a chariot group. Georgia Kokkorou Alevras discusses the two horsemen on Delos whose recent isotopic marble analysis proves them to be of Parian origin. She reaffirms this attribution in opposing their stylistic and iconographical traits to those of the Attic workshop, whose individuality she reinstates (in contrast to aforementioned articles in the same volume) also reassuring their early date (560-550 B.C.). Thus, for the first time we attest the presence of the horseman in the sculptural repertoire of Cyclades, hitherto thought as an exclusively Attic subject. And last, but not least she comments on Naxian influence evident on these Parian sculptures and recurs to the theme of the interrelations in Aegean sculptural Archaic worshops (cf. above Holtzmann, d’Onofrio). Philippe Jockey makes a case for a second Naxian sphinx dedicated in Delphi in the 6th century B.C. based on the fragment of a plinth with the hind legs of a leonine animal or monster.


Three communications discuss Parian reliefs. In the first place Danièle Berranger-Auserve distinguishes between Parian and Attic sculptural production and concludes identifying possibly more than one stylistic trends in Archaic Parian relief sculpture. Angelos P. Matthaiou and Ph. Zapheiropoulou present new evidence on the famous Severe Style Ikaria relief, thought to be of Parian origin. Matthaiou offers a new reading of the accompanying votive inscription and Zapheiropoulou ultimately interprets the scene as a dedication to a kourotrophic goddess (an interpretation already offered by Condoléon and the reviewer in Archaiognosia  1999-2000, but on different terms). The Delos Colossus Project by K. A. Sheedy and Scott Pike displays the first results of the stable isotopic analysis undertaken on the base of the colossal Naxian kouros and on fragments of the statue itself in the purpose of deciphering the meaning of the archaic inscription carved on the base. The analysis carried so far on the plinth and fragment of the foot kept in the British Museum (B 322) shows that the marble of the statue seems especially akin to that of the Parian quarry in Choradaki, presenting a quality similar to the Naxian marble. The two left hands of colossal scale kept in Delos Museum, both previously alternatively assigned to the Naxos colossus, now prove the existence of a second Naxian contemporary colossus on the island. The final contribution by Danièle Braunstein, Jan-Luc Martinez and Alain Pasquier on a new display of the Parian kouros torso Cordier in the Louvre Museum of ca. 470 B.C., takes into account the stance of the figure that can be restored as an athlete preparing to throw his javelin. This statue confirms along with the Delian athletic marble torsos (related in Zapheiropoulou’s first paper) the contribution of the Parian athletic statues in the formation of the Early Classical movement.
In total this book is a significant presentation of the major modern debates around the sculptural production of the Archaic Cycladic workshops in the light of new spectacular finds and new approaches.


Contents

Introduction

Y. Kourayos et F. Prost: La sculpture des Cyclades à l’époque archaïque (p. 15-18)

Paros et son rayonnement

E. Walter-Karydi: Bronze pariens et imagerie cycladique du haute archaïsme (p. 21-54)

Φ. Ν. Ζαφειροπούλου: Η παριανή γλυπτική και οι πρωτοπόροι δημιουργοί της (p. 55-71)

B. Holtzmann, Une nouvelle tête archaïque de Thasos (p. 73-86)

Γ. Κουράγιος: Η ανασκαφική δραστηριότητα στην Πάρο και το χρονικό της ανακάλυψης των νέων γλυπτών (p. 87-129)

La Crète et les Cyclades

M. d’Acunto: La fonction de la plus ancienne sculpture naxienne à Délos  et la comparaison avec les productions crétoises dédaliques: sur les débus de la sculpture monumentale en Grèce (p. 133-182)

A. Hermary: Kouroi à ceinture, de la Crète aux Cyclades (p. 183-197).

Athènes et Cyclades

A. M. d’Onofrio: L’apporto cicladico nella più antica plastica monumentale in Attica (p. 201-262)

J. Marcadé: À propos des sculptures archaïques de l’γορ θεν de Délos (p. 263-281)

Le type de la koré

K. Karakasi: Die kore «Athen-Lyon» und die kore «Phrasikleia» (p. 286-310)

F. Croissant: Les premiers korés cycladiques (p. 311-331)

Le type de kouros

K.A. Sheedy: The Marion kouros in the British Museum (p. 335-365)

W.-D. Heilmeyer: Der kuros von Naxos in Berlin. Geschichte, Zustand, Fragen (p. 367-379) 

F. Prost: Un atelier de kouroi naxiens (p. 381-399)

Animaux et monstres

Ι. Τριάντη: Υστεροαρχαϊκό άλογο από την Πάρο (p. 403-415)

G. Kokkorou-Alewras: Les cavaliers archaïques de Délos (p. 417-435)

Ph. Jockey: Delphes inv. 25584, 25585, 25586: à propos de quelques fragments inédits d’une nouvelle sphinge archaïque colossale (p.  437-466)

Les reliefs

D. Berranger-Auserve: Le relief archaïque parien, thèmes, types, évolution (p. 469-479)

Α.Π. Ματθαίου: Το ανάγλυφο της Ικαρίας Ι (p. 481-483)

Φ. N. Ζαφειροπούλου: Το ανάγλυφο της Ικαρίας IΙ (p. 485-489)

Le marbre

K.A. Sheedy and S. Pike: The Delos Colossus Project (p. 493-509)

Le style severe

D. Braunstein, J.-L. Martinez et A. Pasquier: à propos d’une nouvelle présentation du torse « Cordier » Ma 862 du musée du Louvre (p. 513-533)