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Colossal statue of a man from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos

-350/-350

British Museum

British Museum
London, United Kingdom

This is the best preserved of the colossal dynastic figures from the Mausoleum, even though it has been reconstructed from at least seventy-seven fragments.

Sir Charles Newton found the figure on the north side of the site, where it had probably lain undisturbed since its fall from the building. He immediately claimed that the figure represented Maussollos himself, and that the statue had stood in the four-horse chariot on the summit of the Mausoleum, along with the colossal female statue found nearby. In fact, later research suggests that a total of thirty-six such colossal portraits once stood between the Ionic columns of the peristyle.

The statue is not intended as a true likeness, but a generic portrait of an Asiatic, probably representing one of Maussollos' Hekatomnid ancestors. The figure represented is clearly not Greek. The long hair, the thickened lips, the wide cheekbones, along with the closely cropped beard and drooping moustache follow contemporary Asiatic fashion. His garment, consisting of a long under-tunic of thick material, is not Greek; portraits of Greek men showed them bare-chested. Over this he wears a himation (cloak). His preserved right foot wears an elaborate type of sandal known as trochades.

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  • Title: Colossal statue of a man from the Mausoleum at Halikarnassos
  • Date Created: -350/-350
  • Physical Dimensions: Height: 3.00m; Width: 1.12m; Thickness: 0.68m
  • External Link: British Museum collection online
  • Subject: deity
  • Registration number: 1857,1220.232
  • Place: Excavated/Findspot Mausoleum
  • Period/culture: Classical Greek
  • Material: marble
  • Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum
  • Acquisition: Excavated by Newton, Charles Thomas
British Museum

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