Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
façade of the Byzantine palace of Bucoleon (see Chapter 6), and were
removed to the museum during the construction of the railway line
along the Marmara in 1871.
Returning to the entrance lobby, we now stroll through the
southern half of the museum. The first room has sculptures of the
archaic period (700-480 B.C.). The free-standing statues here are
idealized representations of a young man, known in Greek as a
kouros, or a young woman, or kore, which were placed as dedicatory
oferings in temples of Apollo and Artemis. The most notable are
a legless kouros and a kouros from Samos, the face in both cases
showing the haunting archaic style characteristic of Greek sculpture
of this period. The finest relief is from Cyzicus, showing a long-haired
youth driving a chariot drawn by two horses.
The next room contains sculptures dating from the period of
Persian rule in Asia Minor (546-333 B.C.). The two best examples
are from Daskylion, both with reliefs showing funeral processions in
which mourners are following a cart carrying a sarcophagus.
The room beyond this is devoted to Attic grave stelae with reliefs,
along with other sculptures of the classical period (480-323 B.C.).
The finest stelae are those of a young athlete from Nisyros, a young
warrior from Pella, and one from Amisus (Samsun) showing the
deceased bidding farewell to his two young sons. The two most
notable sculptures in the round are the head of a horse, provenance
unknown, and a statue of Athena from Leptus Magna in Libya, a
Roman copy of the Greek original.
The following room has sculptures of the Hellenistic period (323-
129 B.C.), the two most famous being representations of Alexander
the Great. One, from Pergamum, is a head of Alexander, a third
century B.C. copy of the original by Lyssipus. Alexander is here
represented in the classic pose which became the archetype for all
later representations of him: what Plutarch called his swimming eye
and lion's mane of hair, his mouth slightly open and his head inclined
to the left, a strange lost look on his handsome face. The other, from
Magnesia-ad-Sipylum, is a statue of Alexander in which he is shown
as a young Hercules, another archetypal representation of the young
god-king.
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