Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum
A 137
Achilles from Tegea. Athens
Head of young man wearing an Attic helmet, generally identified as Achilles. From the depiction of the battle of Telephos against Achilles located on west pediment of the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. The temple was constructed by Scopas of Paros in ca. 350 BC.
Marble
Pedimental Figure
H 32.4 cm, W 22.8 cm, D 26.2 cm
From the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. Found in the later walls in front of the northwest angle of the temple with the head of the Calydonian boar (cat.no. A 132) and the head of a vigorous young man (cat.no. A 133).
Greece, Athens, National Museum, 180
Ca. 350-340 BC
Preservation:The head has broken from its figure through the neck. It is recomposed of two fragments. The break surfaces do not join perfectly; there is a restored space between them. It runs from the top of the head, through the center of the visor, diagonally downwards from left to right through the brow, into the inner corner of the right eye, through the right cheek, and to the right of the mouth. The left side of the nose, the left and lower parts of the mouth, and the chin are badly battered. The top of the head is sliced off to fit under a raking cornice. It has an oblique roughly worked surface. The bottom of the neck also seems to be cut flat. The right side of the face has suffered fire damage.
Description:The head depicts a young male wearing a helmet. The head cranes forward, tilting to the left, and the neck bends to the left. The Adam’s apple and the flanking muscles, which protrude, are delineated.
The helmet has a spherical bowl, a neck guard, no cheek pieces, and a visor that follows the front line of the bowl. The bowl is mainly undecorated. The visor has two parallel raised edges defining its upper and lower borders at its center. The raised edges merge into a volute above the ears. The volute above the left ear has a raised spiral decoration whereas the volute over the right ear is simply a flat surface. Another set of parallel raised edges emerges from the volute above the left ear and drops downward to the nape. At the center of the back of the helmet it rises upward and then drops back down, creating a central triangular peak at the bottom of the bowl. The rendering of this rear and back decoration is not continued on the right side
The face is short from chin to crown and broad across the brow and between the cheekbones. The cheeks are massively solid. The low brow is convex and the portion of the brow below the horizontal furrow bulges outward. The base of the nose continues this outward swell of the lower forehead. In addition to being protruding, the bridge of the nose is wide. The eyebrows slope downwards and the deep-set eyes appear to look upwards. The surface of the eyeball is flat. The heavy flap of skin (orbital) below the eyebrows and above the eye hangs lightly over the outer portion of the upper eyelid. The breadth of the orbital causes creases at the outer corners of the eyes. The nose is short with a thick ridge and wide-set nostrils. The upper lip is full and bow-shaped.
The figure’s hair appears only above the temples in front of the ears. It is rendered in short straight locks that are brushed back. The ears are completely visible; neither takes the ‘cauliflower’ form. The left ear is fully finished whereas the right ear and adjacent hair are only schematically rendered.
Discussion:The head of a young man wearing an Attic helmet was found reused in a wall northwest of the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea. It was found with other fragments of the Temple’s pedimental sculpture and is of the same style, technical workmanship, marble type and size as the other fragments from the pediment. For a general discussion of the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea, see cat.no. A 132 and for more information on the west pediment, see cat.no.A 136; other fragments from the pediments include cat.nos. A 133-A 135.
The themes of the pedimental decoration of the Temple of Athena Alea at Tegea are recorded in the literary record, that is, by Pausanias (8.45) who visited the temple. The east pediment featured the Calydonian boar hunt and the west showed the battle of Telephos and Achilles on the plain of Kaikos. Although this helmeted head was found with the head of the boar from the east pediment, it seems almost certainly to belong to the west pediment. First, the participants in a boar hunt were unlikely to have been depicted wearing helmets. Second, according to Stewart the figures of the west pediment were slightly larger, and this head is slightly larger than others (cf. cat.no. A 133).
The back right side of this head is not fully worked, indicating that it faced the back wall of the tympanum. The viewer saw the left side of the head in a ¾ view. The top of the head has been slightly cut so as to fit it under the roof. It is possible, thus, that the head was located just to the right of the pediment center, facing towards the center. In position it is the mirror reverse of the head of Telephos (or Herakles)(cat.no. A 136), the right side of which was seen in ¾ view. Moreover, the forward crane of the neck suggests a lunge. This position of the head and lunging pose seem appropriate for Achilles who must have been placed just opposite Telephos at the center of the scene.
The head features many of the stylistic and technical details that are typical to the sculpture at Tegea and have been consequently associated with Skopas. The head is cubic, with full cheeks, heavy features, and a slightly open mouth.
This particular Tegea head has been the source of a significant modern fraud. A head, known as the ‘Bry head’, entered the public eye in publications by F. Chamoux, J. Frel, and A. Stewart and was even acquired by the Getty Museum. The head was said to be from the west pediment at Tegea and to be that of Achilles. Yet, the head was unmistakably similar in all details including pose to the helmeted head in discussion here, except that it was fully worked on all sides. Not only is it unlikely that two heads would share the same identical look and pose in the pediment but no other fragment from either pediment at Tegea is worked on all sides. The detail, however, that clinched the twentieth century manufacture of the Bry head was that it showed no central dip of the visor over the brow. This is a feature of all Attic helmets and appears on another fragmentary head from the Tegea pediment. On the helmeted head in discussion here that area of the brow was not preserved; it is a gap between the two sections of the head. The lower line of the visor was restored incorrectly as a smooth arch, shortly after its was found in 1878 and before it was displayed in Athens in 1885. Late nineteenth and twentieth century casts made of the object, such as that in the Ashmolean, sometimes showed this restored detail and it is probable that the Bry head was created from such a cast.
J. Lenaghan
Bibliography:C. Dugas, J. Berchmans, and M. Clemmensen,
La sanctuaire d’Aléa Athèna à Tégée au IVe siècle (Paris 1924) 89-90, no. 9, pl. 102A
initial and comprehensive catalogue entryA. Delivorrias,
"Skopadika (I). Télèphe e la bataille du Caïque au front Ouest du temple d’Aléa à Tégé" (BCH 97 1973) 127-131, figs. 6-8
identification of head and pose of full figure in west pedimentA. Stewart,
Skopas of Paros (Park Ridge, NJ 1977) 23-24, no. 17, 55, pls. 14c-d, 15, 35c-d, 52a-c
full catalogue entry with bibliography, placement within the pediment, and discussion of all aspects of the templeG. Hafner,
"Schön und seelenvoll—zum ‘Kopf de Bry’ in Malibu" (Antike Welt 15 1984) 27-32
evidence against the antiquity of Bry head and proof that it copies the Tegea headB. S. Ridgway,
Fourth-Century Styles in Greek Sculpture (London 1997) 48-52
recent discussion in English of the Temple and its sculptureC. Rolley,
La sculpture grecque II. La période classique (Paris 1999) 268-272
most recent presentation of material and bibliography
