Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

A 139
Fragment of a slab from the Amazonomachy Frieze from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Marble
Frieze
H. 90 cm

From the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum). This slab, along with eleven other slabs from this frieze, were found mounted on the walls of the crusader’s fortress in Bodrum Harbour, and were removed in 1846. (Four other slabs were found at the site of the Mausoleum during excavations in 1857 and one was already in a collection in Genoa.)
United Kingdom, London, British Museum, 1009
c. 350 BC

Preservation:
This cast reproduces only the left side of a relief-carved slab. It shows damage to the upper, lower and left edges of the slab. A large section of the front surface of the slab is damaged on the left hand side, obscuring most of a Greek warrior and the horse’s lower leg. The head of the horse is damaged – the eyes have been obscured and the chin and nose are damaged. The rear left leg of the horse, which was carved in the round, has broken off. There is surface damage on the body of the horse. The left lower leg and the left arm of the amazon rider, which were both carved in the round, are broken off. The tip of the right foot, rendered in low relief, has been damaged where it extends into the damaged patch on the left of the slab. The face of the amazon has been obscured through damage and there is damage to the surface of the body. The folds of the amazon’s chlamys (cape) are also damaged. On the right, in the corner, are the damaged remains of the lower leg and foot of another figure.

Description:
The cast reproduces only the left hand side of a larger slab preserved in the collection of the British Museum. Depicted on this fragment is an amazon on horseback. On the left hand side are the very fragmentary remains of a Greek opponent – his foot can be seen on a rock and the ends of his drapery are above the extended foreleg of the horse. The right side of the slab depicts a group of three figures: two amazons and a Greek. Only the remains of the leg and foot of the Greek can be seen in this cast, at the lower right hand corner. The amazon rider is shown mounted on a rearing horse. The horse is depicted in profile, while the amazon is depicted in three-quarter view. She is shown in a somewhat awkward position with her legs extended before her, almost straight, which would create an imbalance, resulting in her falling from the horse. Her right arm is shown raised and bent at the elbow, as if wielding a weapon. No traces of the weapon remain. Smith suggested the weapon was made of metal and added separately. (The cast does not show a hole into which such an object would have been inserted. The sculpture may, but this is not clear from published photographs and descriptions.) The amazon is shown wearing a headdress, which is partly obscured, but is surely the ‘Phrygian’ cap worn by amazons on other slabs. She is also shown wearing a short, sleeveless chiton, and a short cape which flies out behind her in an arching fan-like formation. The top and bottom of the slab are bordered by mouldings. Where the moulding is not damaged at the top, the relief-carved bead and reel decoration can be seen.

Discussion:
Like Cast Gallery cast number A 138, the fragmentary slab is from a frieze depicting an amazonomachy (battle between Greeks and Amazons) which once adorned the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. The cast reproduces only a part of the whole slab, which is about 1.95 m long. This slab shows how small elements of landscape were added to the battle scene; the foot of the Greek opponent of the amazon, on the left side of the slab, rests on a rock. For the Mausoleum in general, see B 97 (‘Mausolus’). For more on the Mausoleum’s amazonomachy frieze, see A 138. For other sculptures from the Mausoleum, see A 140 (fragments of a frieze showing a chariot race); B 98 (‘Apollo’); B 116 (‘colossal’ portrait of a woman); and B 229 (‘heroic’ portrait of a man). CMD

Bibliography:
C.J. Newton, "On the Sculptures from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus," Classical Museum 5 (1848) 170 - 210 (on the discovery of the amazon frieze in the Castle at Bodrum)
C.J. Newton, A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae (London 1862) 234 - 44 (considers the frieze to be the frieze of the order and compares the frieze unfavourably to the same theme as rendered by ‘Phidias’ on the metopes of the Parthenon; lists earlier publications)
A.H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. 2 (London 1900) 95 - 117, esp. 102 - 103, no. 1009 (follows Newton in considering this to be the frieze of the order; lists earlier publications)
K. Jeppesen, “Old and New Evidence of a Reconstruction of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus,” Paradeigmata: Three Mid-fourth Century Main Works of Hellenic Architecture Reconsidered (Aarhus 1958) 1 - 68, esp. 21 - 26, figs. 10 and 11 (provides first new architectural evidence for the placement of the frieze, which should be situated along the top of the podium)
B. Ashmole, Architect and Sculptor in Ancient Greece (London 1972) 166 - 91 (a general discussion of the amazonomachy frieze, which points out the work of different sculptors in the frieze; also notes the relevance of Herakles stealing an axe later housed in a Carian shrine)
B.F. Cook, "The Mausoleum Frieze: Membra Disjectanda," BSA 71 (1976) 49 - 54, esp. 51 - 52, pls. 6 and 7 (argues a fragment of leg which was at one point added to the figure of the second Greek from the left does not belong)
T. Linders and P. Hellström (eds.), Architecture and Society in Hecatomnid Caria (Uppsala 1989) (numerous essays covering more than just the Mausoleum; in particular: Jeppesen gives details of the mouldings running above the amazon frieze, Cook summarises arguments on attribution and Stampolidis argues the marble is from Cos)
I. Jenkins and G. Waywell (eds.), Sculpture and Sculptors of the Dodecanese and Caria (London 1997) (various short reports on aspects of the Mausoleum, including appearance of the monument with placement of the sculpture, marble type [Proconnesian], polychrome decoration and sculptors)