- Museum number
- 1819,0213.3
- Description
-
Fragment of a foot from a colossal statue together with part of the plinth in the same block. This fragment is part of the colossal statue dedicated by the Naxians to Apollo at Delos, of which the base remains in situ; it is inscribed on both sides. The fragment consists of the four greater toes of the left foot. The end of the great toe and all the top of the fourth are split away and the others are weathered.
The figure is generally identified with the ‘great statue of the Naxians’ which, according to Plutarch (Nicias, 3), was overturned by the fall of a brazen palm-tree which had been dedicated by Nicias in 418 B.C.
- Production date
- 6thC BC
- Dimensions
-
Length: 35 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- BM Sculpture
This fragment is part of the colossal statue dedicated by the Naxians to Apollo at Delos, of which the base remains in situ; it is inscribed on both sides.
The figure is generally identified with the ‘great statue of the Naxians’ which, according to Plutarch (Nicias, 3), was overturned by the fall of a brazen palm-tree which had been dedicated by Nicias in 418 B.C. The date of this fall is unknown.
The statue represented the god as nude and standing with the left foot advanced and the forearms bent forward. The long hair fell on the shoulders and was embellished with curls in metal; round the waist was a metal belt. Besides the base and the fragment of foot here described, two fragments have been found at Delos, at some distance from the base; the torso from neck to waist, and part of the thighs; Deonna, op. cit., figs. 84 (base), 85, 87, 88 (torso), 86, 89 (thighs); Reinach, Repertoire, IV, p. 45, 2, 3.
The first modern traveller who saw the statue was Bondelmonte (about A.D. 1420), who found it prostrate, and says that he made an unsuccessful attempt to set it up (Liber Insularum Archipelagi, ed. Sinner, p. 92, and see Rev. Arch., 1883, I, p. 79). In 1445 Cyriac of Ancona sketched the base with one foot still in position (Bull. d. Inst., 1861, p. 182). The head was still intact in 1655 when Thevenot saw it (Voyages, Paris, 1689, I, p. 332), but had disappeared by 1675, when Spon heard that a little time previously a provedittore of Tinos had sawn the face away (Voyage de Dalmatie, etc., Lyon, 1678, I, p. 179), and Wheler in the same year recorded a tradition that head, hands, and feet had been carried off by an Englishman of the name of Mr. Simon, in 1672, and that previous to this the statue was upright on its base (Journey, p. 56); this last detail is obviously a fiction. Tournefoot in 1700 found only the fragments extant at present (Engl. ed. of 1740, vol. I, pl. facing p. 303); they were seen by Leake in 1806, afterwards lost to view, and finally recovered by L. Ross in 1835. On the whole history see S. Reinach in B.C.H., 1893, pp. 129-144; further bibliography is given in Deonna, op. cit., pp. 198, 199. For the inscribed base see Homolle in B.C.H., 1879, p. 2; Roberts, Intro, to Gr. Epig., p. 67, no. 27; Collitz-Bechtel, no. 5421.
Smith, no. 130; Synopsis, 1827, Room 14, no. 103; Stuart, 2nd ed., Ill, p. 127, and IV, Delos, pl. 4, fig. 2; Deonna, Apollons archaiques, pp. 194 and 198, fig. 90; Loewy in Jahreshefte, 1909, p. 282, n. 139; Murray, Gr. Sculpt., 2nd ed., I, p. 172; S. Reinach in B.C.H., 1893, p. 141; Sauer in Ath. Mitt., 1892, p. 42; A. H. Smith in J.H.S., 1916, p. 286.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Back broken away.
- Acquisition date
- 1819
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1819,0213.3
