Commentary Prepared by Dr. Julia Lenaghan, Ashmolean Museum

B 116
'Colossal' Head of Woman, from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus

Marble
Head
H. 48 cm

Excavated on the site of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum) in 1857. Found in ‘Mahomet’s field’ – a field immediately north of the north wall which surrounded the terrace of the Mausoleum.
United Kingdom, London, British Museum, 1051
c. 350 BC

Preservation:
The head has been broken from a statue and the break through the neck is irregular. (The cast has been made stable for display by the addition of plaster fill below the break. The sides of the fill taper in toward the bottom.) There is significant damage to the top of the head, extending onto the upper brow. The right eye is damaged, the left eye slightly damaged, and the nose, mouth and chin are all broken and abraded. The short curls of the fringe are abraded on the right side, at ear level. The ears are slightly damaged. There are patches of surface damage where chips have flaked off the neck around the break. There is a large patch of surface damage on the sakkos, under the right side of the chignon.

Description:
This cast is taken from an over life-size head of a female figure, which has broken off of a full body statue. The head is twisted sharply to the left. The hair of the woman is shown pulled back into a chignon and covered by a sakkos (hair net or scarf like hair cover). The fringe is exposed and arranged into three rows of short ‘snail-shell’ curls framing the face. The face is oval, and the chin heavy. The eyes are deeply set and the ridges of the eyebrows are sharply and inorganically modelled. The line where the lips meet suggests they were rendered in a delicate bow shape. The ears are small and rendered in detail. The neck is fleshy and organically rendered; the folds in the skin caused by the turning of the head are shown encircling the neck on the left. Running across the top of the head, from front to back is a rough stripe. Waywell notes that in the middle of this stripe there is a Lewis hole which he suggests was used to lift the statue into position.

Discussion:
This is the best preserved female head from the freestanding statuary from the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. It belongs to the largest of three main sizes of the statuary, classified by Newton as ‘colossal’ – a term kept by Waywell, who estimates the statues of this range to have measured between 3 and 2.70 metres in height. This, compared with the ‘heroic’ size, at 2.30 metres and the ‘life-size’ statues, which are estimated to stand about 1.80 metres in height. The ‘colossal’ statues from the Mausoleum comprise both standing figures and figures in action poses. Waywell identified fragments for eleven ‘colossal’ standing figures, including both males and females. Of this group, two full statues have been almost completely reassembled. These are the so-called ‘Mausolus’ (B 097) and the ‘Artemisia’, Mausolus’ wife (BM 1001). Although different in details such as the twist of the neck, the hairstyle of this head is similar to that of the Artemisia statue, and is it assumed the costume and pose of the statue bodies were also similar; ‘Artemisia’ wears a long chiton and himation, and she stands with her weight on one leg. Her arms were originally raised (‘orans’). It is not clear whether this gesture is intended as a sign of mourning. It is possible that the female figures of colossal size all represent generic mourning figures. Usually, however, both the female and the male colossal figures are interpreted as portraits of Mausolus’ family members or ancestors. Supporting this interpretation is the fact that the hairstyle of this head and the dress of the ‘Artemisia’ statue are the same as that seen in a representation of Ada, the succeeding ‘Queen’ of Caria on a relief found at Tegea (Ada is explicitly named in the inscription on the relief). It is not clear how many colossal female figures like this one originally adorned the monument; the number depends on hypothetical arrangements of the statues. Ancient literary sources describe the Mausoleum as a towering, three-part structure, comprising tall podium, colonnade and pyramidal roof. Though there is little evidence, the ‘colossal’ standing figures are usually restored to the level of the colonnade. Waywell prefers to imagine them between the columns, either with the colossal male figures or as a series of mourning female figures only, which would raise the number of the female figures. (For this arrangement of mourning women between columns, compare the Mourning Women’s Sarcophagus, from Sidon.) Jeppesen feels the ‘colossal’ figures are too large to fit comfortably in the intercolumniations, and would rather restore these figures on a ‘shelf’ around the cella, within the colonnade. Hoepfner simply places them in the peristyle, rather than between the columns. (He places the ‘heroic’ size figures on a ‘shelf’ plinth around the cella.) In conclusion, it should be mentioned that Pliny and Vitruvius name several sculptors who worked on the Mausoleum: Leochares, Bryaxis, Skopas of Paros, Timotheos and perhaps Praxiteles (the last, mentioned by Vitruvius, being dropped by most scholars). The four sculptors were supposedly responsible for one side of the monument each. Smith noted this head was ‘in the manner of Skopas’, but it was found on the north side of the Mausoleum – the side assigned to Bryaxis. There is currently no consensus on attributions, and the sculptor of this head remains unknown. For the Mausoleum more generally, see B 97 (‘Mausolus’). For other sculptures from the Mausoleum, see B 98 (‘heroic’ head of Apollo), B 116, B 229 (‘heroic’ male portrait) and A 138 – 140 (fragments of friezes). CMD

Bibliography:
C.J. Newton, A History of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus and Branchidae (London 1862) 104, 111, 224, no. 259 (notes the find spots; suggests the head may be a portrait; engraving of the head opposite p. 107)
A.H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, vol. 2 (London 1900) 125 – 26, no. 1051 (uninformative catalogue entry; follows Newton in noting the features do not identify any known goddess; rendered in the manner of Skopas)
G. Waywell, The Free-Standing Sculptures of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in the British Museum; A Catalogue (London 1978) 41 – 43, 70 – 71, 106 – 107, no. 30 (essential catalogue entry; not possible to attribute to any specific sculptor; probably a portrait of ancestor or family member of Mausolus; perhaps displayed between columns)
T. Linders and P. Hellström (eds.), Architecture and Society in Hecatomnid Caria (Uppsala 1989) (numerous essays covering more than just the Mausoleum; see in particular Waywell, who maintains the statue may have been displayed between the columns; might represent a mourning female family member)
W. Hoepfner, “Zum Maussolleion von Halikarnassos,” AA (1996) 95 - 114, esp. 107 - 110 (thinks the figures of this size belong in the peristyle, contra Waywell)