Supervisors info:
Stylianos Katakis, 10, Department of History and Archaeology, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Dimitris Plantzos, 9, Department of History and Archaeology, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Euridice Kefalidou, 10, Department of History and Archaeology, Ε.Κ.Π.Α.
Summary:
The colossal marble statue of the Athena Medici in the Louvre is generally regarded as a Roman copy (1st century AD) of a classical Greek original (5th century BC), attributed to Pheidias (tentatively identified with Athena Parthenos, Promachos, Lemnia, Areia) or, alternatively, to a student of his (Kolotis, Alcamenes, Agorakritos). Two more colossal marble statues of the Medici type have been identified (Sevilla I, II) as well as a large number of colossal copies (18+) that preserve only certain acrolithic body parts (heads, forearms and hands, feet, right leg), which were separately made of marble and bear traces of joints for attachment to a wooden core (wedge-shaped channels, dowel sockets, contact surfaces, red paint). The Athena Medici type is also attested in small statuettes, as well as on several reliefs and coins. The extant corpus of copies suggests that the original must have been a famous masterpiece in antiquity, possibly a colossal acrolith made by a renowned sculptor and/or perhaps connected with an important historical event.
In this thesis, I first thoroughly study all the copies of the Athena Medici type, catalogued and classified into distinct categories (Classes A-G), each entry labelled with an accession number, accompanied by relevant archaeological and historical information, and provided with full technical, stylistic, and iconographic description. Subsequently, I comparatively examine technical details (type, shape, size/dimensions, and placement of wedge-shaped channels, dowel sockets, drill holes, contact surfaces, color traces) and construction techniques of all colossal acrolithic copies. Then, I proceed to an in-depth analysis of the iconography, pose, and style of the Athena Medici based on a comparative study of all surviving copies. Finally, after assessing the attributions and dates proposed by other scholars, I attempt to date and identify the prototype of the Athena Medici type on the basis of five key parameters and in correlation with contextual and historical evidence, which may allow an understanding of the prototype in its original historical and cultural context.
Keywords:
Athena Medici, Pheidias, Roman copies, Classical Sculpture, 5th-century Greek Sculpture, Roman Sculpture, Athena Areia, Athens, Plataea
