Limestone group: banquet, Archaic II Cypriot statue

Archaic II

Limestone group: banquet

Five figures are disposed around the edge of an irregular plinth. They face inward; a cutting may have held an altar or offering table. The banqueters recline on cushions, not on couches as in Greece. The central male figure is alone. On either side is a couple, a reclining male and a woman seated at his knees. The heads probably do not belong with the bodies. As with the terracotta group scenes, the Cypriot artist used all means at his disposal to render familiar subjects. The malleable clay and soft limestone facilitated his efforts. WebPub GR 2012 Cesnola: 6 7/8 × 17 1/2 × 11 1/4 in., 16 lb. (17.5 × 44.5 × 28.6 cm, 7.3 kg)

Date

550 - 500 BC

Accession No.

74.51.2577

Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Provenance

  • Sanctuary of Golgoi-Ayios Photios

References

  • Cesnola, Luigi Palma di. 1885. A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Vol. 1. pl. LXVI.432, Boston: James R. Osgood and Company.Myres, John L. 1914. Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus. no. 1020, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1978. Antichnoe iskusstvo iz muzeia Metropoliten, Soedinennye Shtaty Ameriki: Katalog vystavki. no. 78, Moscow: Sovetskii Khudozhnik.Karageorghis, Vassos, Joan Mertens, and Marice E. Rose. 2000. Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 203, pp. 134-5, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Karageorghis, Vassos. 2006. Aspects of Everyday Life in Cyprus: Iconographic Representations. no. 154, pp. 169-70, Nicosia: Foundation Anastasios G. Leventis.Hermary, Antoine and Joan R. Mertens. 2013. The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art : Stone Sculpture. no. 243, p. 194, Online Publication, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

More from the Catalogue

Browse related objects