Archaistic relief showing five divinities: Zeus, Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, and Apollo. Artist: Unknown

25 B.C.–A.D. 14

Ancient Art

On view, 1st floor, Ancient Art

Although the figures in this relief have been rendered in a style reminiscent of Archaic Greek sculpture, the piece is actually a work of the late first century B.C. or early first century A.D. Beginning in the late Hellenistic period, some workshops began to produce so-called Archaistic sculpture, which imitates Archaic artistic conventions, such as the stylized zig-zag pattern of drapery folds. Nevertheless, the manner in which the garments cling almost transparently to the bodies underneath clearly marks this relief as a later work. The subject represented is a procession of Olympian gods, from front to back: Zeus, carrying a thunderbolt and a staff; Hera, with a staff; Athena, holding a helmet and a spear; Aphrodite, with a flower; and Apollo, carrying his lyre.

Medium

Marble (apparently Thasian)

Dimensions

27 9/16 × 51 3/16 × 2 3/16 in. (70 × 130 × 5.5 cm)

Credit Line

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr., Class of 1913, Fund

Accession Number

1965.132

Culture
Period

Augustan

Classification
Disclaimer

Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

Provenance

Formerly in the collection at Athelhampton Hall, Dorset
Bibliography
  • Jennifer Gross, ed., Edgar Degas: Defining the Modernist Edge, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2003), 52, fig. 16.
  • Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, 3 (Zurich: Artemis Verlag, 1997), 651.
  • Handbook of the Collections, exh. cat. (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 1992), 266, ill.
  • Mary-Anne Zagdoun, La sculpture archaisante dans l'art hellenistique et dans l'art romain du Haut-Empire (Paris: Diffision De Boccard, 1989), 87–88, 90, 94, 97, 100, fig. 27.
  • Janet Susanna Rose Sauser, "The Twelve Gods Relief in the Walters Art Gallery," The Journal of the Walters Art Museum 45 (1987): 6, fig. 4.
  • Christa Bauchenss-Thüriedl, Erika Simon, and Ingrid Krauskopf, Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, 8 vols. (Zurich: Artemis, 1981–97), vol. 3, p. 651, no. 21, pl. 512; vol. 4, p. 701, no. 360; vol. 5, p. 848, no. 306.
  • Cornelius Vermeule, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America, 1st (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1981), 195, no. 161, ill.
  • "Recent Gifts and Purchases," Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin 31, no. 1 (Spring 1966): 6–11, 42, ill.
Object copyright
Additional information

Object/Work type

figures (representations), mythology, reliefs

Technical metadata and APIs

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