Satyr
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Satyr, Inv. T I-52 Hollow. Front and back made of moulds. Perforations at the top of the head and at the lower part of the loincloth. Reddish-brown clay (5YR 6/5). Few remains of white engobe. Traces of dark red painting on the left side of the ribcage, on the neck and on the right cheek, as well as on the back of the head and on the right palm. Provenance: Unknown; acquired by Sauer from the Vogell Collection in 1908. State of preservation: Composed of four fragments. Triangular break on the back of the loincloth. Damage to the lower rim and abdomen. Dimensions: H 11,1 cm; W: 7,8 cm; D: 3,7-4,1 cm. References: J. Boehlau, Griechische Altertümer südrussischen Fundorts aus dem Besitze des Herrn A. Vogell, Karlsruhe (Kassel 1908) 66 Nr. 713 pl. 9, 2; M. Recke, Die Klassische Archäologie in Gießen (Gießen 2000) 38 note 130; D. Graen – M. Recke, Herakles & Co. Götter und Helden im antiken Griechenland (Gießen 2010) 125 no. 71. |
Description: It is the upright figure of a young man whose legs, once worked separately, are missing. He wears a loincloth; around his hips is a thick length of cloth knotted at the front, the end of which hangs down in zigzag folds. At the lower end of the loincloth, on both sides, are holes for fastening the legs. The naked torso is adorned with a thick beaded wreath. The ribcage and pectoral muscles are vividly highlighted. In the side view, the curvature of the back, the waist retraction and the protruding rounded belly stand out. On the shoulders are the loops and bands of the bead wreath. The right arm is raised, the hand open and pointing forward with bent fingers. The left hand rests on the hip.
The head is slightly tilted forward and to the right and turned slightly to the left. In the hair is a wreath with two large ivy leaves on each side and two clusters of flowers (corymbs) in the middle. The contour line of the short straight strands of hair has a downward bend in the middle of the forehead and a retraction at the temples.
The beardless rectangular face tapers from the mouth area to the chin. Beneath the arched brows are wide-set eyes framed by sculpted lids. Next to the short, broad nose are round cheeks, separated from the mouth by a furrow. The upper lip overhangs the full lower lip.
Commentary: The headdress of ivy leaves and berries leads into the environment of Dionysus[1]. The coarsened features of the beardless face, the low, strongly arched forehead, the slightly depressed root of the nose as well as the hairstyle of vertical strands, the contour line of which protrudes into the middle of the forehead[2], characterise the youthful satyr. A parallel specimen in Würzburg[3] is not only equipped with movable legs, but also with a large dangling phallos.
The Giessen satyr belongs to a group of similar statuettes from the northern coast of the Black Sea, on both sides of the Kerch Strait[4]. Similar to a puppet, the separately made limbs can be set in motion[5] by connecting them with strings that pass through the hole at the back of the head and through one opening each at the top of the legs and the phallos, as well as on both sides at the lower section of the loincloth. Puppets of this type were apparently widespread and popular throughout the Bosporan Empire[6].
The peculiar arm posture of the satyrs can be explained by comparison with an articulated figure from Kerch. On the young man, who is depicted in the same posture, rounded protrusions, a kind of flattened spheres, are visible on various parts of the body and clothing. These are on the raised back of the right hand, on both shoulders, on the loop of the short hip scarf and on the supported left hand[7]. Apparently he is an entertainer juggling balls. Narrow ribbons fall on his shoulders. The arched forehead is bald, the nose broad; the plump cheeks appear soft and tensionless[8].
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Derewitzky – Pavlowsky – von Stern (Odessa 1897/1898) 30 f. pl.14, 1. |
A torso from Germonassa (Taman)[9] is extremely similar to the Giessen specimen and its parallels in terms of posture and physicality. In addition, it has a spherical protrusion[10] on the right shoulder, corresponding to those of the statuette of the young man from Kerch. Such appliqués are missing on the statuette in Giessen T I-52. The leaf wreath is similar in form and composition to the headdress of Dionysian figures, which enjoyed particular popularity in the advancing Hellenistic period[11]. The perizoma (loincloth) alludes to the clothing of physically working slaves and craftsmen[12]; for satyrs the costume is rather unusual. The deeply indented loin region and the increased rounding of the back, the protruding abdomen and the swelling plasticity of the pectoral muscles as well as the soft, plump cheek area are reminiscent of figures and heads of young men and boys that were created from the 3rd century BC and into the 1st century AD, especially in the coastal regions of the Black Sea and Asia Minor[13]. Graves from the necropolises of Kerch and Phanagorij, from which numerous similar satyr statuettes and fragments[14] as well as similar articulated figures with other pictorial motifs[15] emerged, also date to this period, which can hardly be more narrowly defined. |
Determination: Late Hellenistic/Roman Imperial Period; from Pantikapaion/Kerch.
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[1] Cf. the crowned head of a youthful Dionysus, Summerer ibid. 170 pl. 4 c; „Dionysos-Tauros“, S. Besques, Figurines et reliefs III, (Paris 1971/72) 84 pl. 107 b.
[2] LIMC VIII (Zürich und Düsseldorf 1997) 1121 no. 119 pl. 766. 1116 no. 48 pl. 754. 1130 no. 216 pl. 782 Silenoi (E. Simon); comparable hairline on a satyr from Amisos, Summerer ibid. 175 pl. 12 a.
[3] E. Schmidt, Katalog der antiken Terrakotten, Würzburg, Martin- von-Wagner-Museum (Mainz 1994) 182 no. 307 pl. 55 a. b; similar, equally well-preserved statuette from Pantikapeion-Kertsch: M. M. Kobylina, Terrakotovye statuėtki Teil Č. 3 Pantikapej (Moskau 1974) 43 f. pl. 53, 4, with reference to numerous parallels.
[4] I. Finogenova, Terrakoty pantikapeia, in: Archaeology and Art of Bosporus Kimmerian (Moskau 1992) 252 f. fig. 22-24; head and torso of a satyr in Helsinki, L. Pietilä-Castrén, The Greco-Roman Terracotta Figurines of Finland and their Collectors (Helsinki 2007) 45 no. 59; Winter, Typen 1, 1903, 172, 4.
[5] E. H. Minns, Scythians and Greeks (New York 1913 ND 1971) 369 f. note 1. Further types of these figures from excavations on the Cimmerian Bosporus: Besques ibid. III, 1, 58 f. pls. 70 c. d; P. C. Bol – E. Kotera, Bildwerke aus Terrakotta, Liebieg-Haus Frankfurt am Main (Melsungen 1986) 224-227 no. 121; F. W. Hamdorf, Die figürlichen Terrakotten der Staatlichen Antikensammlungen München 2 (Bobingen 2014) 664 f. F 55; M. M. Kobylina, Terrakotowie statuėtki Pantikapeja i Phanagorii (Moskau 1961) 161-164 pl. 36 f.; dies. Divinités orientales sur le littoral nord de la mer noire (Leiden 1976) 21. 33 nos. 13. 50 pls. 10. 31; B. Pharmakowsky, Archäologische Funde im Jahre 1912, Russland, AA 1912, 193 f. fig. 32. 33; id. AA 1913, 342. 346 fig. 29; Winter ibid. 172 f.
[6] A. Derewitzky – A. Pavlowsky – E. von Stern (eds.), Das Museum der Kaiserlich Odessaer Gesellschaft für Geschichte u. Altertumskunde. Lieferung 1 und 2 Terracotten (Frankfurt a. Main – Odessa 1897 und 1898) 30 f. pl. 14, 1; Kobylina ibid. Č. 1-2, 1970 pl. 54, 4; Kobylina ibid, Divinités 1976, 21 no. 13 pl. 10; I. T. Kruglikova, O kul’te verchovnovo Ženskovo božestva na Bospore vo II-III Vv. n. e., in: A. I. Boltunova (ed.), Kultura Antičnovo Mira (Moskau 1966) 110-115 figs. 3-5; similar figures in: Altes Museum Berlin, aus der Sammlung Alexandre Merle de Massonneau, Griechen, Skythen, Amazonen (Berlin 2007) 61.
[7] Museum Odessa, Derewitzky – Pavlowsky – von Stern ibid. 30 f. pl. 14,1.
[8] The posture of a young man in a short belted sleeve robe is mirrored. He props up his right arm while raising his left. On his head he wears a hoop and a pot-like hat which is pierced in the middle. A phallos is missing. The legs are slender, Kerch, 2nd century BC, Kobylina ibid. Č 3 1974, 43 pl. 53, 1.
[9] M. M. Kobylina, Pridonye i Tamanskij Poluostrov Teil Č. 4 (Moskau 1974) 40 pl. 46, 7; 29 pl. 33, 3. 4.
[10] Kobylina ibid. Pridonye i Tamanskij Poluostrov, Č. 4, 1974, 40 pl. 46, 7; Finogenova, Terrakoty germonassi, ibid. 272 fig. 27; Kobylina ibid. Teil Č. 3 Pantikapej 1974, 39 pl. 53, 3.
[11] Mollard-Besques ibid. 98 f. pls. 94 b. d; pl. 95 f. For the wreath, cf. also the head of Dionysus Tauros from Amisos, L. Summerer, Hellenistische Terrakotten aus Amisos (Stuttgart 1999) 170 no. P II 5 pl. 4 c; tatuettes of the youthful Dionysus with wreath from Myrina, S. Mollard-Besques, Figurines et reliefs II Myrina, 1963, 78 pls. 94 b. d.
[12] Sacrificial Servants in the Sanctuary of Hermes on a Red-figure Pelike by the Perseus Painter, c. 460 BC, CVA Berlin (15) pls. 19, 1. 20, 1. Cf. G. Bruns, Antike Bronzen (Berlin 1947) 59-61 fig. 41; Daidalos, clad in a loincloth, adapts Ikaros' wings, see the Roman Sardonyx Cameo in Naples, E. Simon, Daidalos – Taitale – Daedalus, AA 2004, 2, 431 fig. 13.
[13] Torso of a Heracles from Chersonnesos (Sevastopol), Kobylina ibid. Teil Č 1-2, 1970, 72 pl. 11; Amisos: S. Besques ibid. Cat. III, 2, 1972, 294 f. pls. 366 b. e; Summerer ibid., 200 pl. 46 a; 178 pl. 12 d; Tarsos: H. Goldman, Excavations at Gözlü Kule, Tarsus I (Princeton 1950) 311 f. no. 22 pl. 213; p. 326 no. 121 pl. 222; E. Töpperwein, Terrakotten von Pergamon (Berlin 1976) 191-198 no. 412. 414 pl. 60.
[14] Eight replicas from the area of Mount Mithradates, the ancient acropolis of Pantikapaion, 58 specimens from the necropolis of Kerch, as well as a parallel from the catacombs of Phanagorij (on the Taman Peninsula), Kobylina ibid. Teil Č. 3 Pantikapej 1974, 43 f. Furthermore, also from Phanagorij, a fragment in a loincloth, with supported left arm and a bow on the left shoulder, shown in side view, 1. Jh. n. Chr., Kobylina ibid. Č. 4, 29 no. 93 pl. 33, 1
[15] Figure of a young man in basically the same posture with a vegetal wreath on his head and a beaded wreath around his neck from Phanagorij, 1st century BC, Kobylina ibid. Č. 4 29 no. 98 pl. 33, 6.