Γλυπτά ελληνιστικών και αυτοκρατορικών χρόνων από τις αποθήκες του Μουσείου Μπενάκη

Περίληψη

This article presents a study of fragments of small-scale Hellenistic and Roman sculpture in the storerooms of the Benaki Museum. It examines a portrait head, 5.5 cm. in height, probably from Asia Minor, which is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original. It portrays an elderly man with a short beard and emaciated features (deep wrinkles, projecting cheekbones and sunken cheeks). It may represent the head of a philosopher, but the notable plasticity of the moulding suggests that it could be the head of a fisherman. Statues of fisherman were a favourite theme of Hellenistic sculpture. Although this particular work does not conform to a known iconographic type, it may have associations with the statue of a fisherman found in Aphrodisias, whose appearance strongly resembles that of a Hellenistic philosopher. This may perhaps point to a direct connection with the general climate of the Second Sophistic, the period of both theAphrodisias and the Benaki Museum sculpture.
The remaining sculptures, also small in scale, come from Egypt and were donated by Loukas Benakis. They include a head of a statue of Alexander, heads of Ptolemies and statues of Egyptian and Greek divinities, and they constitute a new source of information on the Egyptian sculpture of the Hellenistic and Roman eras.