Explore Collections
You are here:
CollectionsOnline
/
Figure of a youthful female from the frieze of the Erechtheion (or Erectheum) on the Acropolis in Athens.
Browse
Figure of a youthful female from the frieze of the Erechtheion (or Erectheum) on the Acropolis in Athens.
White marble
Height: 37cm
Height (back): 35cm
Depth (back of frieze to thigh): 14cm
Width (neck): 4.5cm
Height (back): 35cm
Depth (back of frieze to thigh): 14cm
Width (neck): 4.5cm
Museum number: M321
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 278
On display: Colonnade - central aisle
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
For tours https://www.soane.org/your-visit
Curatorial note
Fragment, from the neck to the knee, of a youthful female figure moving toward the right, with the weight borne momentarily by the left leg. She wears a sleeveless chiton fastened at her right shoulder and girt, with overfold, about her waist. In the girdle are two drill holes 0.3 cm in diameter and 1.5 cm apart, probably for attaching a clasp or buckle. The bare right arm originally would have extended downward, outward, and forward: probably the forearm was bent, otherwise it would have projected too far from the background. The proportions indicate that the figure belonged to the frieze of the North Portico. At the back, the upper part is worked with a point, the lower part with a toothed chisel as well. The broken dowel hole/mortice in the left shoulder, for attachment to the separate background, is about 4.3 cm high, 4 cm front to back and 1.5 cm deep (that is 1.5 cm cut into the marble).
Mr. Bernard Ashmole made the original identification of this fragment as coming from the Erechtheion in time for a publication on the building in 1927. Ledger ‘Repairs to Fabric and Contents 1945 - …’ (Soane Archives) records under 1952 ‘Erectheum torso mounted on marble block at British Museum (J. Brennan) on the advice of Prof. Bernard Ashmole £2.10.0.’
Mr. Bernard Ashmole made the original identification of this fragment as coming from the Erechtheion in time for a publication on the building in 1927. Ledger ‘Repairs to Fabric and Contents 1945 - …’ (Soane Archives) records under 1952 ‘Erectheum torso mounted on marble block at British Museum (J. Brennan) on the advice of Prof. Bernard Ashmole £2.10.0.’
Provenance
Unrecorded but this piece is from the frieze on the North Porch of the Erechtheion on the Acropolis at Athens.
Literature
G.P. Stevens, L.D. Caskey, H. N. Fowler, J. M. Paton (ed.), The Erechtheum measured, drawn, and restored, Cambridge (Mass.), Harvard University Press, 1927, p. 270, no 112, fig. 165
L. Pallat, in Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts., 50, 1935, pp. 75-137.
L. Pallat, 'Der Fries der Nordhalle des Erectheon', Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 52, 1937, pp.17 - 29.
P. Thornton and H. Dorey, A Miscellany of Objects from the Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 1992, p. 72, fig. 71.
Raphaël Jacob, 'Une figure recomposée de la frise de l'Érechtheion', Revue archéologique 2/2014, p.311 footnote 84
P. Boulter, 'The Frieze of the Erechtheion' in Antike Plastik, 1970, no 112, p. 16, pl. 25.
L. Pallat, in Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts., 50, 1935, pp. 75-137.
L. Pallat, 'Der Fries der Nordhalle des Erectheon', Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, 52, 1937, pp.17 - 29.
P. Thornton and H. Dorey, A Miscellany of Objects from the Sir John Soane's Museum, London, 1992, p. 72, fig. 71.
Raphaël Jacob, 'Une figure recomposée de la frise de l'Érechtheion', Revue archéologique 2/2014, p.311 footnote 84
P. Boulter, 'The Frieze of the Erechtheion' in Antike Plastik, 1970, no 112, p. 16, pl. 25.
Soane collections online is being continually updated. If you wish to find out more or if you have any further information about this object please contact us: worksofart@soane.org.uk