Portrait of Menander

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Modern reconstructed copy of the Menander statue in the Theater of Dionysus, Athens

The portrait of Menander is a portrait type repeated in many Roman replicas, which - partly named by inscriptions - could be identified as the Greek comedy poet Menander .

The portraits are Roman copies of a Greek seated statue that was set up in the Athens Dionysostheater and that was made after the poet's death in 291/90 BC. By Kephisodotos and Timarchus , the sons of Praxiteles . The statue base with the inscription of the depicted Menander and the two artists was found in the area mentioned by Pausanias - the theater - as early as 1862 , but not in the original location, so that the place of installation is not known more precisely, but has to be explored.

Posture of the so-called seated poet Menander , in which a Roman nobleman from the second half of the 1st century BC. Was represented

The many replicas that have been handed down to us from the 1st century BC BC to the 4th century AD, testify to the high esteem that work and artists were shown in antiquity. With 72 head and 7 torso replicas, including two smaller ones, it is by far the most frequently copied portrait of a Greek poet in the ancient monuments.

As early as 1897, the portrait was identified as that of Menander by Franz Studniczka , but it was only his 1918 article that made this known to a wider professional public. Inspired by a photomontage by Friedrich Crome , who believed he could regain Virgil's portrait in this way , Klaus Fittschen succeeded in 1990 at the University of Göttingen in the extensive reconstruction of the statue by making plaster casts of the head replica from Venice and the Neaplers torso replica with a cast of the base from the Dionysus Theater. The reconstruction of details such as the seating and the base, which are still the subject of discussion, is fraught with uncertainty.

The Göttingen reconstruction shows a statue sitting very calmly, which reaches a height of 1.55 meters. The seated Menander is shown with his head tilted and turned away from the frontal viewer. The statue in Göttingen is raised above the surroundings by an inclusive lower level 1.63 meters high. The poet wears an undergarment under the cloak draped over his left shoulder . It is not clear whether the original statue was made of bronze or marble, although Pliny expressly describes the two sculptors as ore caster. Chiselling of the hair, the occasion and purpose of the erection as an honorary statue offer good reasons to accept a bronze version.

The portrait shows Menander beardless - a novelty in the male Greek portrait that was only introduced with the portrait of Alexander the Great ; previously, the beard was a natural mark of every free, serious man. A representative of the portrait type is the head found in Athens in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens with inventory number 3292. It was made from Pentelic marble and is 0.19 m high. The nose, other larger parts of the face and the back of the skull are broken off. However, many details can still be seen. The eyes are set deep in the skull, the forehead shows deep wrinkles and the hair falls in wavy curls. Characteristic is the S-shaped strand that extends from the left temple over the middle of the forehead and forms a bar in front of the hair combed forwards on the parting and, for example, on the head in the Glyptothek in Munich or the repetitions in the Archaeological Museum in Milan and the Vatican Museum to watch.

  • The Menander portrait in Roman copies

  • 1st century BC BC, National Museum Inv. 3292

  • 1st century BC Chr., Glyptothek, Munich

  • 1st century BC BC, Archaeological Museum, Milan

  • Early 2nd century, Vatican Museums (inv. 1453)

  • 4th century, from Ephesus , Selçuk Ephesus Museum

literature

Web links

Commons : Portraits des Menander  - collection of images, videos and audio files
  • Menander at the Virtual Antiques Museum in Göttingen

Remarks

  1. ↑ Inscriptiones Graecae (IG) II² 3777 .
  2. ^ Pausanias 1, 21, 1.
  3. ↑ Athanasios Rousopoulos: Η εν τω Διονυσιακώ Θεάτρω ανασκαφή . In: Αρχαιολογική Εφημερίς (Archaiologike ephemeris) 1862, p. 158 f. 178 f. No. 183.
  4. ↑ For discussion Christina Papastamati-von Moock: Menander and the tragic group. New research on the monuments of honor in the Theater of Dionysus in Athens. In: Athenische Mitteilungen 122, 2007, pp. 298–304.
  5. ↑ Klaus Fittschen: For the reconstruction of Greek poet statues. 1st part: The statue of Menander. In: Athenian communications. Vol. 106, 1991, pp. 253, 259 f.
  6. ^ Franz Studniczka: The portrait of Menander. In: New Yearbooks for Classical Antiquity. Vol. 21, 1918, pp. 1-31.
  7. ^ Friedrich Crome: The portrait of Virgil. In: Atti e memorie dell'Accademia virgiliana di Mantova. Volume 24, 1935, pp. 49-119; the same: The Athenian statue of Virgil from 19 BC Chr. Born Mantunaner Studies I. In: Atti e memorie dell'Accademia virgiliana di Mantova. Volume 33, 1962, pp. 43-59.
  8. ↑ For discussion Christina Papastamati-von Moock: Menander and the tragic group. New research on the monuments of honor in the Theater of Dionysus in Athens. In: Athenische Mitteilungen 122, 2007, pp. 285–298.
  9. ↑ Klaus Fittschen: For the reconstruction of Greek poet statues. 1st part: The statue of Menander. In: Athenian communications. Vol. 106, 1991, p. 267.
  10. ↑ Klaus Fittschen: For the reconstruction of Greek poet statues. 1st part: The statue of Menander. In: Athenian communications. Vol. 106, 1991, p. 270.
  11. ↑ Pliny, Naturalis historia 34,51.
  12. ↑ For an overview of the different judgments see Christina Papastamati-von Moock: Menander und die Tragikergruppe . New research on the monuments of honor in the Theater of Dionysus in Athens. In: Athenische Mitteilungen 122, 2007, p. 289
  13. ^ Nikolaos Kaltsas : Sculpture in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens . The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles 2002, ISBN 0-89236-686-9 , pp. 282-283.