The drunken old woman
The drunken old woman is a female seated statue from Hellenism . It is preserved in two copies in marble from Roman times. The original working material was also probably marble. What is special about the genre of sculpture is its strong realism .
The original Greek sculpture of the drunken old woman has been lost; two Roman copies have been preserved, one in the Capitoline Museums in Rome , the other in the Munich Glyptothek . The research regards the sculpture of the drunken elderly as a consecration gift to the god Dionysus , to whom both the wine jug and the ivy are assigned as an attribute .
Original sculpture and copies
The large-scale statue of the drunken elderly is classified in the epoch of Hellenism , but the exact date of origin cannot be named. In research, the drunken old woman is usually dated to the late 3rd century BC due to stylistic parallels. Dated. The bulky and block-like composition and the pyramidal structure make it comparable to the Scythians of the "Marsyas-Schleifer group", which dates back to the 1st half of the 2nd century BC. Is dated, as well as with the figure of the goose strangler , who dates from the middle or late 3rd century BC. Is dated. The copy from Munich is dated to the 1st century AD and is considered the better copy. The Roman copy is dated to the 2nd century AD. In the Villa Romana del Casale near Piazza Armerina , Sicily , another terracotta copy is kept, which was found in the necropolis of Montagna di Marzo near Piazza Armerina, and based on which the head of the Roman copy has been reconstructed.
Sites
original
According to Pliny , the original of the figure was placed in Smyrna , Asia Minor . In his Naturalis historia , books 36, 32 he lists famous marble works that are not in Rome , including an anus ebria (Latin = intoxicated old woman). It was created by a Myron from Thebes, by whom he incorrectly meant the sculptor of the same name Myron from the 5th century BC. As a second possible installation site, due to the lagynos that the old woman is holding in front of her, Alexandria comes into question. The Lagynos gave its name to the Lagynophorien , the bottle festival that was introduced by Ptolemy IV .
Munich copy
The statue of the drunken old in Munich's Glyptothek had been in the possession of Cardinal Ottoboni in Rome since 1700 . At that time it was one of the most famous antiques in the city. Domenico de Rossi took it in 1704 in his directory of ancient and modern statues in Rome ("Raccolta di statue antiche e modern"), which he published together with Paolo Alessandro Maffei . During this time, the old woman was valued primarily for her ecstatic expression. In 1714 the figure was given to Elector Johann Wilhelm in Düsseldorf as a gift from the cardinal . After a stopover in Mannheim, she was transferred to the Munich residence in 1803 by Elector Karl Theodor . Leo von Klenze refused to accept the drunken old woman in the new Glyptothek of King Ludwig I.
After 1865 the Trunkene Alte was transferred to Heinrich Brunn's new cast collection and placed in the museum's cast storage room. In 1895 the statue by Adolf Furtwängler was finally put up in the Munich Glyptothek, but not next to the Greek sculptures, but in the 'Römersaal'. Today the sculpture, along with the Barberian Faun and the Boy with the Goose, is one of the highlights of the collection.
description
The sculpture shows an aging woman who crouches on the floor and holds a bottle in her lap. The height is approx. 92 cm, so about life size. The woman is sitting on the floor with her legs crossed in front of her and holding them in a slightly bent position with the left leg over the right. In her lap she holds a Lagynos bottle , which she carefully grips around the mouth and belly with both arms and hands. Your left arm lies loosely around the belly of the bottle and comfortably on the left knee of your leg. Your right hand grips the neck of the bottle. The bottle that usually contained the unmixed wine is adorned with an ivy tendril with leaves and flowers.
The woman is dressed in a chiton with metal clasps attached to the straps and belted in the middle of the body. The strap on the right has slipped over her shoulder, exposing her upper body, but not exposing her chest. The motif of the wearer slipping down over the shoulder has traditionally had an erotic connotation and occurs mainly in depictions of the goddess of love Aphrodite . Over the chiton, the woman wears a heavy coat that has sunk to the floor in rich folds and is piling up around her. The clothes of women correspond to the fashion of the time. The same drapery can also be found in depictions of Aphrodite and nymphs , comparable to the draperies of noble women of that time.
On the free upper body, the collarbones and ribs stand out on the cleavage , just like the shoulder blades and the spine on the back. The skin stretches over the skeleton in a thin layer and anatomically precisely shows the muscles, veins and tendons underneath. A thick vein runs through the neck directly under the skin, which disappears into the slack folds of skin under the chin.
Pierced ears indicate gold earrings that could be attached there. A headscarf keeps your hair off your face. The old woman's head is tucked back, her mouth slightly open and her gaze is directed into space. The skin is slack and hangs in folds over the cheek and down over the jawbone. The nasolabial fold is pronounced and crow's feet surround the eyes. The open mouth allows a glimpse of a few tooth fragments. The woman's hair is carefully coiffed; it is tucked in on the sides and tied with a ribbon over the neck. Her headscarf is also carefully draped from under which small curls peek out as if by chance. On her left hand the old woman wears two rings, one on her index finger and one on her ring finger, which indicate that she was wealthy and had a certain status .
Historical-cultural context of the creation
Since the 5th century BC The Greeks laughed in the theater at old and alcoholic women, they were among the most popular characters in comedy . In the Attic culture of the 4th century BC The comedy played an important role, it represented a kind of outlet for the population, which created a balance to the ideology of Kalokagathia , the training of body and mind with the aim of the political and moral perfection of the population. These values were reflected in strict standards in representative art, as well as in reliefs and all other depictions of gods and human figures . The moral quality of the citizens was made clear by means of beautiful and harmoniously shaped bodies. In the comedy, everyday situations with their human weaknesses were shown and people were able to free themselves from the ideological demands of the day by laughing at banalities. The comedy formed a counterworld, so to speak, in which people with deformities, fat bellies, thin legs and wrinkled faces, ugliness and age were shown to the audience. By laughing at the sight of them, the population was also able to get rid of the stylization of the strictly regulated bodies based on society.
The old women in comedy were always characterized by the qualities ugly, chatty, hungry, man-crazy and above all alcoholic and appeared on stage in two roles, namely as wet nurses and as former hetaera or matchmaker . Furthermore, these figures did not belong to society either, they were always assigned as slaves , servants or strangers, which is why they were suitable for making fun of them.
Interpretations
Paolo Alessandro Maffei saw a lamp in the wine bottle in her lap and interpreted the head, which was still up, and the slightly open mouth as a prayer pose to the gods. He assigned the drunken old woman a role as the priestess of Bacchus .
In an anthology on the pieces exhibited in the Munich Glyptothek, Heinrich Bulle took the view that the Trunkene Alte was conceived as an artist's fun and had been designed for a rich and amusing Dionysus admirer in his park.
In the 1970s, interpretations that emphasized the social problem of the figure predominated. A comparison with the "Derelict women" by Duane Hanson from 1973 illustrates this. It was important for the sculptor to draw attention to the misery of a poor woman, it was assumed that a deep compassion should be felt for these poor, old, outcast women. In both cases, lying or crouching on the floor expresses the women's violation of social behavior.
In more recent art studies, on the other hand, Ludger Alscher sees the extreme characterization of the figure as a neglect of the forms of existence and the finiteness of life.
Paul Zanker is of the opinion that the drunken old woman is a former hetaera from the comedy topos.
Christian Kunze also sees in her the topos of the alcoholic elderly, but he does not assign roles like Zanker to see in her a hetaera, but goes in a different direction of interpretation. For comparison he uses representations from the small sculpture and looks at literary sources from the time. These literary sources form epigrams written by poets , in which only the quality of alcoholism is ascribed to the old women . In the depictions of small sculptures, however, the roles of men and women were described as fat, talkative and alcoholic. It is also noticeable that the figures were always placed on a pillow or chair. In the case of the small sculptures, the display space is not limited to drunkenness alone, but all of the properties already listed are illustrated. Kunze is now of the opinion that the sculpture of the drunken elderly would differ in this from the small sculptures and, especially in the Hellenistic period, would be reduced to the motif of drunkenness. He sees this alcoholic behavior increased to the point of superhuman and demonic, so that women’s only pursuit is the immeasurable greed for wine. He sees the sculpture of the drunken elderly as an independent representative of unrestrained drunkenness. Reduced only to this motif and enriched with the demonic quality of immeasurable greed, the old woman now slips into the role of an earthly counterpart to the satyrs , the mystical drinkers of Dionysus . Kunze thinks he can apply this interpretation of the small vessels to the large plastic figure of the drunken old man and sees in it a foundation of a satyr figure in honor of the god Dionysus. He believes that he has found evidence of his thesis in figure vessels in the form of satyrs. Kunze suspects much more of the precursors of the drunken old in the satyrs. He argues here that the drunken old woman has the same sitting position, namely facing the viewer, spread legs and sitting on the floor with her head raised. He sees a further parallel in the arm guidance, which is similar to the old one; the satyrs also include a vessel or musical instrument in front of their belly. Christian Kunze is of the opinion that the picture idea for the drunken old woman can be traced back to the satyr figures crouching on the floor. According to Christian Kunze's argument, no statement can be made about the person depicted here: He remains an anonymous figure who pays homage to God in a Dionysian environment through his state of intoxication and who in this way enters the world of the Dionysus cult inserts.
Sometimes other researchers have also suggested that the drunken old woman is a kind of priestess figure because of her unusual clothes with the accessory of the headscarf, but recent research has shown that the headscarf cannot be assigned to a specific costume. The headscarf is just as often shown in portrayals of nurses, with older women in ritual acts, old hetaerae, but also with bourgeois women.
Influence on cabaret
The statue of the drunken old , similar to The Old Fisherman in the large sculpture, has no precursors, but in turn has a great influence on cabaret. A clay jug from Skyros , dating from around 100 BC. Is dated, takes over some motifs of the drunken old . The woman pictured on her carries a Lagynos bottle in front of her and holds it in a very similar way. The wave-like formation of wrinkles from the mouth and around the neck is also striking. Here, however, the ivy wreath is placed around the woman's head. On the base of the jug there is an inscription in which it says: “The old woman who has become a bottle sits delighted”.
However, the complex iconography of the ancients was trivialized in the reception of cabaret. The motive for exposure was completely dispensed with and her happy, blissful expression was also lost. Instead, it is replaced with an expressionless face. After all, she is only depicted as a drunkard with wrinkled skin. The ironic moment seems to be the fact that the drunken old woman has become a bottle herself in the small sculpture and the bottle shape can be found in the figure.
literature
- Dieter Ohly : Glyptothek Munich: Greek and Roman sculptures. A guide. Munich 1977.
- Paul Zanker : The drunken old woman. The laughter of the mocked. Fischer, Frankfurt / Main 1988, ISBN 3-596-23960-5 .
- Paolo Moreno: Vecchia ubriaca. In: Enciclopedia dell 'Arte Antica. II Supplemento. Rome 1997.
- Christian Kunze : Unrecognized friends of the gods. On the interpretation and function of Hellenistic genre figures. In: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Roman Department . Volume 106, 1999, pp. 69-80.
- Raimund Wünsche : Glyptothek Munich. Masterpieces of Greek and Roman sculpture. Munich 2005, p. 114.
- Ursula Mandel : Spatiality and Experience of Movement. Body fates in High Hellenism (240-190 BC). In: Peter Cornelis Bol (ed.): The history of ancient sculpture. Volume 3: Hellenistic Sculpture. Zabern, Mainz 2007, pp. 173–177.
- Roland RR Smith: Hellenistic Sculpture. A handbook. Thames & Hudson, London 2006, pp. 136-140 ( digitized version ).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The so-called "Marsyas Grinder Group". ( Memento of the original from January 15, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sculpture Hall Basel. With fig.
- ↑ Figure
- ↑ Caterina Greco: Una terracotta da Montagna di Marzo e il tema della vecchia ubriaca . In: Alessandria e il mondo ellenistico-romano . Rome 1992, pp. 686-693.
- ↑ skulpturhalle.ch ( Memento of the original from September 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Paul Wolters : Description of the Glyptothek of King Ludwig I in Munich . Munich 1910.
- ↑ a b Raccolta di statue antiche e modern: data in luce sotto i gloriosi auspicj della… Papa Clemente XI. Rome 1704.
- ↑ The beautiful man in antiquity; a history of the body ideal among Egyptians, Orientals, Greeks ( Memento from April 3, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Figure
- ↑ Hartwin Brandt: My hair also becomes silver: A story of old age in antiquity . Verlag CH Beck, 2002, ISBN 3-406-49593-1 , p. 109
- ↑ Figure
