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Three Sculptured Stelai in the Possession of Lord Newton at Lyme Park

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Eugénie Strong
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Extract

The recent Exhibition of works of Greek art held at the Burlington Fine Arts Club—although necessarily limited to comparatively small objects—has been sufficient to prove that the traditional wealth of our English collections of classical antiquities still remains a fact. The Exhibition, moreover, has had its use in eliciting information as to works of art on a larger scale, hitherto unknown and unrecorded, that had escaped the vigilance of Waagen and of Conze, of Michaelis and of Furtwängler, and even of our English archaeologists. Thus it was that when the Exhibition was little more than planned I learnt from the well known sculptor, Countess Feodora Gleichen, that there existed at Lyme Park, Lord Newton's Cheshire seat, three fine sculptured Stelai from the best period of Attic art. I am grateful to the owner for granting me permission to publish these inedited works in this Journal, which ought indeed to be the official gazette of the English collections. I have unfortunately been unable to avail myself as yet of Lord Newton's further permission to study the originals. But as photographs of the Stelai are now extant, I have thought it wiser not to postpone the publication for fear that it might be anticipated elsewhere. The information kindly given me by Lord Newton himself has facilitated the discussion and interpretation of the Stelai which, for the rest, are perfectly straightforward examples of their class.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 23 , November 1903 , pp. 356 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1903

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References

1 See, Michaelis, , Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, §88, p. 160.Google Scholar

2 Narrative of a Journey in Egypt and the Country beyond the Cataracts, by Legh, Thomas, Esq., M.P. (John Murray 1817)Google Scholar. 1812 i given as the date of the visit to Athens on p. 1. On p. 279, however, the excavation is referred to as taking place in May 1811.

3 The British Museum, for example, possesses no example on this scale and the same might be said of most other Museums, excepting, of course, the splendid collection at Leyden.

4 Numerous examples of this class of relief and of similar compositions may be found in Conze's ‘Attische Grabreliefs.’

5 For the Attic deme Οἶον see Wachsmuth, , Stadt Athen II. p. 236.Google Scholar

6 Furtwängler, , Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture, p. 29.Google Scholar

7 The three garments are best seen on the figure of the beautiful stele from the Kerameikos, Conze, CLII (No. 805).

8 For the subject cp. the stele at the Brit. Mus. (6 in the Phigaleian Room) of a young mother seated, and in front of her the nurse holding the well swaddled infant.

9 This type and shape of stele is common—numerous examples in Conze op. cit.

10 This vase (a pelike) is published by Stackelberg, Gräber der Hellenen, Pl. XVIII and is now in the Brit. Mus.; on. the obverse Zeus and Nike with their names inscribed stand on each side of a low altar; on the reverse a female figure is moving away rapidly from another female figure who stands holding a sceptre. R.f. technique. A fanciful conjecture as to the ashes which the vase contains is put forward by Mr. Legh. It perhaps belonged originally to Mr. Forster, co-proprietor with Legh, Cockerell, and others in the Phigaleian frieze. Then it passed into the possession of the Rev. William Wood of Fulham. In 1895 it was acquired for the British Museum, at a sale at Messrs. Sotheby's.

11 Conze, Plate CXXI (No. 622).

12 Reisch, , Griechische Weihgeschenke, p. 54.Google Scholar

13 I have no doubt that this motif, which Reisch attributed to the actor in the Lateran relief, is also that of our stele.

14 F. Studniczka's interesting paper on the Actor relief from the Peiraeus, (Mélanges Perrot, p. 307 ff.)Google Scholar, though not bearing exactly on the relief now published, must at any rate be mentioned in this connection.