Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum
A 033
Head of Athena from the East Pediment of the Temple of Aphaia at Aigina. Munich
Marble
Pedimental Figure
31 cm
From Aigina. The head was found with in 1811 in the Pronaos of the Temple of Aphaia.
Germany, Munich, Glyptothek, 89
ca. 480-470 BC
Preservation:The head is broken around the bottom of the neck and at the beginning of the back of the left shoulder. A splinter on the helmet visor and one at the beginning of the right shoulder have broken off the main section of the helmet and have been reattached. Also attached to the main piece are fragments of the two added pieces (in marble) on the sides of the neck guard of the helmet. The fragment on the right side is larger than that of the left side. Similarly there is a marble piece at the bottom of the central dowel hole on top of the head which was made for the crest support. A fragment of the snake-bodied crest support with plug to fit into the center hole of the helmet was lost in World War II but is preserved in the Ashmolean Cast. This plug with the body of a snake, however, did not join the piece found at the bottom of the hole during the most recent cleaning. There are traces of paint on the helmet. The tip of the nose was restored by Thorvaldsen.
Description:The head depicts a long-haired female who wears a helmet. The helmet has a projecting front visor that reaches behind the ears. The ears are completely uncovered and have holes in the lobes for the attachments of earrings. Behind the visor the helmet clings to the skull. At the top is a large rectangular cut out area. The back and right sides of this are have regular vertical edges. The area to the left slants upward. Into the back right side of this was once a marble dowel with the body of a snake on top. Now, there is just a smaller rectangular piece of marble at the bottom of the hole. Originally there was a snake-bodied support that ran down the center of the helmet and supported the crest.
The helmet also features a neck guard which begins at the level of the ears and descends from there in a concave band. This concave band is painted an alternating pattern of lotus buds and palmettes (respectively three of the one and two of the other). Below the concave area the neck guard flares at the base of the neck. Below the flaring edge on the left side long strands of wavy hair are preserved. Directly behind the left ear the front section of the neck guard, which was worked separately, is in part missing. It has broken off around the nail which, behind the ear lobe, was used to affix it. On the right side the front part of the neck guard has similarly broken but to a lesser extent. Again the nail behind the ear is visible.
On the left side running down below the ear on the neck, in front of the neck guard, are four holes and on the right in the same zone two. These served for the attachment of locks of hair that fell on to the shoulders. Across the brow below the edge of the helmet are three larger holes placed evenly, one at each temple and one over the center of the brow. These were used for the addition of the brow hair. The area in front of the ears below the temples is smooth and unweathered. There is a similar smooth unweathered area, which is much smaller, below the border of the helmet over the central area of the brow. These areas were clearly covered by the hair which must have looped down in front of the ears.
The face has a long oval shape. The brow without the added hair appears tall and flat. The eyebrows arch symmetrically. The upper lids of the eyes are heavy and the upper lid of the left eye differs from that of the right eye. The inner line of the right upper eyelid has more downward slope than that of the left. The right eye is also placed closer to the nose and lower on the face than the left eye. Both eyes, however, are long and narrow and have tearducts which are defined by the shape of the lower lid and a line on the inside of the eye. The nose is straight and has a broad ridge. The lips are full. The groove dividing them is angular; it has a “V” shape. In addition, the upper line of the lower lip is notched at the center. Below the lower lip is a dip and then the chin projects. The chin is as broad as the mouth.
Discussion:For a full discussion of the history, both ancient and modern, of the sculpture from the four pediments of the Temple of Aphaia at Aigina, see the entry concerning the central figure of Athena from the West Pediment (cat. A 29). This head belongs to the East Pediment which is stylistically later than the West Pediment in both its total construction and its individual figures. It features fewer figures (eleven rather than thirteen) and the action converges towards the center rather than move outward in small groups. The bodies and heads of the figures are more naturalistically and freely rendered.
This is clearly the head of Athena who without argument was the central figure of the East Pediment which depicted Telamon and Herakles attacking Troy. There are fragments of the rest of the Athena statue of the East Pediment. These include part of the right shoulder, pieces of the drapery, a hand, pieces of the aegis, and the feet. These fragments combined with the model presented by the statue of Athena on the West Pediment (cat. A 29) allow for a fairly secure reconstruction of the statue. It appears to have stepped towards its left and stretched its left arm to the left. To Athena’s left was the predominantly non-Trojan side of the battle; all but the supposed Priam figure on that side are Greeks.
A few stylistic and technical details about the head itself should be noted. The head, like the other heads (see cat. A 32) displays early classical tendencies rather than the late archaic tendencies of the heads of the West Pediment. A comparison with the head of the Athena of the West Pediment (cat. A 29) shows that the two had very similar hair and helmet arrangements; even a detail like the notch in the center of the upper line of the lower lip is the same. Yet the shape of the face of the East Pediment figure is a unified slim oval and the mouth does not tuck into the cheeks with upturned corners.
Ohly suggests that the large rectangular area that has been cut away at the top of the helmet as well as the marble dowel with the piece of the snake body belonged to a restoration. According to him, after the statue was erected, the crest needed to be repaired. Because there was so little space between the slanting roof of the pediment and the head, the sculptors need to cut diagonally downward from the left side into the original rectangular dowel hole in order to fit the new crest into the dowel hole. The new crest in addition was slightly too short for the hole so a small marble spacer (that which is still preserved) was put in first. Ohly also notes that the hair worked separately was made in lead.
Bibliography:A. Furtwängler,
Aigina. Die Heiligtum der Aphaia (Munich 1906) p.239 F no.65 pl.97
catalogue entryD. Ohly,
Die Aegineten I. Die Ostgiebelgruppe (Munich 1976) pp.13-25 pls.1-3, 11c figs.6-19
extremely detailed technical description of the head which belongs to the figure of Athena from the East Pediment
