Designing the Divine: The Construction of Cult Statues in the Second Century BCE Public
Eckhardt, Ashley (Summer 2021)
Abstract
The second century BCE witnessed a noted boom in cult statue and temple construction that coincided with larger trends in civic development across the Mediterranean. In this dissertation, I center on the production and viewing of cult statues, from Asia Minor to the Italian peninsula, in this transformative period. An investigation into the various elements involved in the crafting of a cult statue—the choice of materials, technique, and scale—reveals how a community used sacred art to express its local traditions within an increasingly diverse and expanding world. The creation of cult statues and temples offered a fundamental opportunity for Hellenistic rulers, Greek poleis, Roman magistrates, and the sculptors and architects they employed to engage in community development and political advancement. Amid warfare, political turmoil, and social and economic change, the crafting of cult images not only endured, but prospered. Strong regional variation in political, economic, and social conditions therefore served as catalysts rather than impediments for the acceleration in the production of cult buildings and statues in this period. Through this dissertation, I push beyond the traditional bipolar narrative of the increasing movement of Greek art, materials, and craftsmen to Rome through commissions, plunder, and trade, an approach which obscures the richly complex interchanges that influenced artistic production in the second century. By instead looking at cult statues and their temples within a broad landscape, I bring into dialogue the resilience of local religious expression and the medley of new ideas, techniques, and styles offered by the Hellenistic world and the rise of Rome. Finally, I argue that a cult statue and its temple formed a cohesive unit that shaped a viewer’s experience at a cult site. Using digital models of reconstructed cult statues and temples, I demonstrate the visual effects that set a cult image apart from other sculptures and how statue and temple together shaped the viewing experience at cult sites throughout the second-century Mediterranean.
Table of Contents
Introduction__________________________________________________________________ 1
Research Questions___________________________________________________________ 3
What’s Happening in the Second Century BCE?_____________________________________ 6
Cult Statues and Their Temples_________________________________________________ 15
The Corpus________________________________________________________________ 18
Cult Statues____________________________________________________________________________ 19
Temples_______________________________________________________________________________ 22
Chapter Outline_____________________________________________________________ 24
Chapter 1: Material Manifestations of Second-Century Religious Developments________ 28
Appeal to the Locals: Elevating Local Deities through Cultic Construction________________ 31
Polis Religion in the Hellenistic Period_______________________________________________________ 35
A Festival of Fame and Fortune: Artemis Leukophryene at Magnesia_______________________________ 39
Establishing Cultic Continuity and Civic Identity in New Poleis________________________ 42
Megalopolis and the Recalcitrant Lykosourans_________________________________________________ 46
Introduction of New Cults_____________________________________________________ 52
Logistics of Cult Foundation_______________________________________________________________ 55
Divine Personifications___________________________________________________________________ 57
Eastern Deities__________________________________________________________________________ 66
Delos: Microcosm of the Mediterranean______________________________________________________ 72
Chapter 2: Agents of Construction: The Human Hands Behind Divine Bodies__________ 81
The Sculptor________________________________________________________________ 84
Sculptors’ Professional Networks___________________________________________________________ 89
Sculptor Mobility: Reexamining Westward Migration___________________________________________ 93
Sculptor’s Signatures on Second-Century Cult Statues___________________________________________ 97
A Singular Success Story: Damophon of Messene_____________________________________________ 100
The Architect______________________________________________________________ 108
Professional Training and Social Status______________________________________________________ 110
Second-Century Architects_______________________________________________________________ 112
The Patron________________________________________________________________ 118
Civic Bodies as Patrons__________________________________________________________________ 121
Human and/or Divine: Royal Patrons and Synnaos Theos_______________________________________ 126
Private Patronage by Elite Individuals_______________________________________________________ 135
Chapter 3: Materials, Materiality, and Techniques_______________________________ 147
Cult Statues and Their Materials Prior to the Second Century BCE____________________ 148
Wood____________________________________________________________________ 151
Possible Second-Century Wooden Cult Statues_______________________________________________ 154
Bronze___________________________________________________________________ 158
Marble___________________________________________________________________ 163
Marble Sources_________________________________________________________________________ 164
The Hellenistic Marble Trade_____________________________________________________________ 171
Greek Marble in Rome___________________________________________________________________ 174
Acrolithic Technique____________________________________________________________________ 177
Piecing Technique______________________________________________________________________ 181
The Second-Century Preference for Assembled Statues_________________________________________ 183
Applied Materials___________________________________________________________ 188
Plaster________________________________________________________________________________ 189
Paint_________________________________________________________________________________ 190
Gilding_______________________________________________________________________________ 194
Inlay_________________________________________________________________________________ 196
Metal Attachments______________________________________________________________________ 200
Chapter 4: Visibility and Visuality of Cult Statues in Their Architectural Environments 203
Second-Century Architectural Developments______________________________________ 204
Digital Modeling Study_______________________________________________________ 209
Methodology__________________________________________________________________________ 210
Temple of Herakles, Kleonai (Doric Tetrastyle Prostyle)________________________________________ 213
Temple of Zeus Sosipolis, Magnesia on the Maeander (Ionic Tetrastyle Prostyle)____________________ 220
Temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei, Rome (Corinthian Tholos)_____________________________________ 225
Temple of Despoina, Lykosoura (Doric Hexastyle Prostyle)_____________________________________ 230
Temple of Asklepios, Messene (Doric Peripteral)______________________________________________ 236
Artemision, Messene (Ionic Tripartite Oikos)_________________________________________________ 241
Temple of Apollo Smintheus, Chryse (Ionic Pseudodipteral)_____________________________________ 245
Study Conclusions__________________________________________________________ 251
Scale_________________________________________________________________________________ 252
Visibility______________________________________________________________________________ 255
Chapter 5: Seeing Cult Statues in a New Light: The Impact of Natural Illumination___ 261
Digital Modeling Study_______________________________________________________ 263
Temple of Herakles, Kleonai (Doric Tetrastyle Prostyle)________________________________________ 264
Temple of Zeus Sosipolis, Magnesia on the Maeander (Ionic Tetrastyle Prostyle)____________________ 266
Temple of Fortuna Huiusce Diei, Rome (Corinthian Tholos)_____________________________________ 267
Temple of Despoina, Lykosoura (Doric Hexastyle Prostyle)_____________________________________ 268
Temple of Asklepios, Messene (Doric Hexastyle Peripteral)_____________________________________ 270
Artemision, Messene (Ionic Tripartite Oikos)_________________________________________________ 271
Temple of Apollo Smintheus, Chryse (Ionic Pseudodipteral)_____________________________________ 273
Study Conclusions__________________________________________________________ 274
Conclusion_________________________________________________________________ 279
Tables_____________________________________________________________________ 290
Graphs____________________________________________________________________ 292
Figures____________________________________________________________________ 298
Catalog____________________________________________________________________ 333
Cult Statues_______________________________________________________________ 334
Probable Second-Century Cult Statues______________________________________________________ 449
Temples__________________________________________________________________ 470
Bibliography_______________________________________________________________ 585
Abbreviations______________________________________________________________ 585
Bibliography 586
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