Spolia in motion. A colossal limestone head (“mask”) of Dionysos in the British Museum
This paper discusses an unpublished and relatively little-known colossal limestone sculpture depicting the god Dionysos, probably of late Hellenistic date, originating in late 19th century Cyprus and now preserved in the British Museum. Reused in the foundations of the stables of a camel station in...
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| Опубликовано в: : | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/cchyp, |
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| Главные авторы: | , |
| Формат: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Язык: | Anglais |
| Опубликовано: |
Cahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes
2025
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| Online-ссылка: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Итог: | This paper discusses an unpublished and relatively little-known colossal limestone sculpture depicting the god Dionysos, probably of late Hellenistic date, originating in late 19th century Cyprus and now preserved in the British Museum. Reused in the foundations of the stables of a camel station in the village of Lefka in north-western Cyprus, the head was purchased by Henry Arnold Tubbs in 1889, one of the leaders of the Cyprus Exploration Fund expedition, and offered for sale to the British Museum. Although the sculpture arrived in London this same year, the purchase was not concluded until 1910, when it was formally incorporated into the collection. In the years that followed, however, the head was neglected, possibly because of misconceptions over its subject and date, and its significance was recognised only during the refurbishment of the museum’s A. G. Leventis Gallery of Ancient Cyprus in 2012 where it is currently on display. Research in the museum’s archives by Thomas Kiely has elucidated the historical environment in which it was collected at the end of the 19th century, not least the tendency of professional fieldworkers to acquire artefacts through the local antiquity trade, and the broader operation of the trade in both excavated antiquities and spolia. While the findspot of the Dionysos head was clearly secondary, the proximity of Lefka to the ruins of the ancient city of Soloi invites speculation about its original context and purpose, though these details are unknown and cannot currently be investigated on the ground. As seen in Antoine Hermary’s analysis presented in the second part of this paper, this remarkable head nonetheless contributes to broader discussions of the iconography of Dionysos and the significance of this cult on the island and in the broader eastern Mediterranean in Hellenistic and Roman times.1 |
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