Base of Mantinée

The bases of Mantinée is a whole of three plates carved in Bas-relief representing for one, Apollon, Marsyas and a Silène, and for each of both others, a group of three Muses. They were discovered in 1887 with the site of old the Cité Greek of Mantinée, in Arcadie and probably constitute the decoration of a base of statue; they were allotted to the sculptor Praxitèle or to its workshop. They are currently preserved at the archaeological National museum of Athens under the numbers of MNA inventory; 215, MNA 216 and MNA 217.

Description

August 11th 1887, during the excavations led to Mantinée by the French School of Athens, the archeologist Gustave Fougères puts at the day three plates employed again in the pavement of a Byzantine church. The upper part was damaged by the passage of the faithful ones, but the part located against the ground still comprises a decoration carved in good state. They are transferred at once to the archaeological National museum from Athens where they are restored. The three plates are of very comparable size: the MNA panel; 216 measurement 1,35 measures top for 0,96 meter broad; the MNA panels; 215 and 217,1,36 meter in height for respectively 0,96 meter and 0,98 meter in height.

Each plate represents three figures which are detached on smooth bottom. They are simply juxtaposed, without particular search for composition.

Apollo and Marsyas (MNA 216)

The figure of left represents the god Apollon sitted, bearing of the long hair, vêtu of a Chiton and a himation and holding of the left hand a zither which rests on its left knee. Right hand, it brings back to him a side of its himation. On the right, bearded Marsyas, the left and folded leg and the tended line, plays of the aulos (double flute). With the medium, a man upright, bearded, capped of a kind of Phrygian cap and vêtu of a chiton with lack and a anaxyrides (Eastern pants), holds a knife with the hand. On the basis of identification the preceding one two, one recognizes in him the servant who, at the conclusion of the musical contest opposing the god and the satyr, will skin this last.

Muses (MNA 215 and 217)

The two other plates re-press Muses which, according to certain versions of the myth of Marsyas, are the judges of the contest. MNA 215 watch a first group of three Muses: that of left carries a aulos, that of the medium holds the sides of its himation in which it is rolled up, that of right-hand side sat and plays of small a String instrument, perhaps Pandora or a tricorde. ”

The text such as it was transmitted mentions only one MUSE ( Μοῦσα ), but it presents a difficulty: if one knows representations of Marsyas playing of the flute in front of a ménade, one does not know of it Marsyas playing in front of only one MUSE. To mitigate the problem, one had suggested a confusion of Pausanias, known for his rather vague descriptions, which would have taken Apollon for a MUSE. It seems besides that the inventors of the three plates made themselves the error initially. Ferns proposes to amend Μοῦσα in Μοῦσαι , in the plural, correction which makes from now on consensus. The three plates could have been aligned after, with Apollon and Marsyas in the center and the Muses on each side, but there does not remain any trace of a device of connection with the sides in return, which does not plead in favor of this assumption. One proposed to see the decoration of a estrade there accommodating the candidates of the contests of music which took place each year, according to Polybe, in Arcadie: one of the heads of Muses of MNA 217 was found in the ruins of the theater. However, this rebuilding was consolidated by no other archaeological testimony.

Random links: