| Collection: | Corinth | |
| Type: | Object | |
| Name: | S 2387 | |
| Title: | HEAD OF SARAPIS | |
| Category: | Sculpture | |
| Category Code: | S | |
| Object Number: | 2387 | |
| Description: | Bearded male wears tall modius, flaring toward flat top, its surface rasped. Shoulder-length hair parted in center, 1-2 rows of locks framing forehead, making wide part and curling to either side. At ear height locks turn into corkscrew curls which cover ears and continue around back of head; these separated by drill, and drill hole at tip of each corkscrew; over crown and back, wavy flat long strands, separated with claw. Single furrow in high forehead, 2 knots framing nose, sharp brow ridge; deepset eyes with heavy upper lid, emphasized by chiseled line along upper edge; pupils not incised. Straight nose, drilled nostrils. Lips parted by 2 mm. channel, drill hole at either corner; partly covered by moustache, which is lightly incised. Beard is a fringe of locks on cheeks, row of curling locks with drilled tips, row of long corkscrew locks with tips drilled, locks separated by drill. Neck has 2 creases; back roughly blocked out with point. Drill separates face from hair. Start of shoulders and chest, ending in tenon, sides of which worked with flat chisel; near base trimmed more deeply with round-headed chisel (?); bottom worked with coarse point. Face smoothed but not polished. | |
| Decoration: | Originally red underpainting and gilding; orig. inv. mentions gilding on forehead; photos show painted irises. After theft: traces of red paint in hair, rest gone, together with gilding. | |
| Mythology: | Sarapis | |
| Attributes: | Modius | |
| Material: | Fine-crystalled white marble | |
| Condition: | Fragment. Head and neck to base of tenon; rt. eye, nose damaged; lock of hair missing on lt. side. Damage by fire. While stolen, put up for sale by Christie's in New York, who must have restored breaks, cleaned some of burning on nose, forhead, drilled hole for b | |
| Dimensions Actual: | H00.40 H00.224 (tip beard-base modius) W00.085 (temples) L00.025 (eye) D00.12 (modius) H00.058-00.114 (tenon) | |
| Period: | Middle Roman (2/2 2nd c-4th c AD) | |
| Chronology: | Antonine or later? | |
| Area: | South Stoa middle | |
| Context: | NB152 P120 | |
| Bibliography: | AJA 1937 P540 Fig.1; Capps, Hesperia 1938 P549 Fig.8; Brady, HSCP 1941 P61-69; Koter-Sibbes N469; Milleker, Hesperia 1985 P127 N2; P. Rentersward, Die Polychromie; J. LeClant, ANRW 17.3 (1984) P1704 (cited); Corinth 20, 2003. | |
| Site: | Corinth | |
| City: | Ancient Corinth | |
| Country: | Greece | |
| References: | Publication: Capps, Hesperia 7:4, 1938 Publication: Milleker, Hesperia 54:2, 1985 Publication: Morgan, American Journal of Archaeolog41:4... 1937 Monument: South Stoa middle Images (5) Basket: NB152 P120 |
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