Ἐρύθημα… ἀντὶ κράνους

A. Furtwängler's reconstruction of Pheidias' statue of Athena Lemnia-combining a body in Dresden with a head in Bologna and adding a helmet in her left hand-has been disputed by K. J. Hartswick, who argued that there is no Classical prototype for the Bologna head. Hartswick questioned not only the existence of a join between head and body, but also the authenticity of the gems considered by Furtwängler as echoes of his Athena. The present paper defends Furtwängler's composite figure as a true copy of a mid-fifth-century B. C. statue of Athena holding her helmet in her hand. The problem of the identification of Pheidias' Athena Lemnia remains open to discussion. Apart from the fact that at least one gem, carrying the name of the first century B. C. Sicilian collector Heius, is very likely to be genuine, Furtwängler's Athena is in fact reflected, albeit indirectly, in two original sculptures of the Classical period, a late fifth-century statuette from the Athenian Acropolis and a fourth-century relief of Athena holding her helmet from Epidauros

Acropolis · Ancient history · Art · Art history · Head (geology) · Sculpture · Statue · Ancient Mediterranean Archaeology and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classics · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History

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  Open Access•Olga Palagia•Oxford Journal of Archaeology•1990

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  Open Access•Olga Palagia•The Annual of the British School…•1989

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