• r2-53-10
    Torso fragment with high-girt chiton, frontal view. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Torso Fragment with High-Girt Chiton

Date
Hellenistic
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
NoEx62.010
Material
Marble, Stone
Object Type
Sculpture
Sculpture Type
Draped Woman, Human Figure
Site
Sardis
Findspot
Unknown.
Description

The lady wears a high-girt chiton, tied beneath the breasts with a ribbon belt ending in a double knot. The diagonal folds of the bound-up cloth of the himation are slung across her hips. The banded border at the neckline of the chiton comes to a slightly off-center V. The neck has been modeled to show the inner end of the collarbone and a horizontal wrinkle.

The style of dress has roots in the maiden from Antium and the Themis from Rhamnus. The carving of our piece is somewhat flatter than the examples cited below, but the full-bodied figure and delicate chiseling of the folds suggests that it, too, is Hellenistic.

Condition

White marble.

The r. side of a draped female torso is preserved from the neck to about the hip. There is a break with traces of the r. arm against her side to the elbow. The l. side is broken off smoothly just l. of center, thus preserving the peak of the V at her neckline, and the knot of the ribbon tying the garment below her breasts. A deep gouge has been removed at the back.

Dimensions
H. 0.645; W. center of chest to side 0.18; D 0.10.
Comments
For the Antium and Rhamnus figures see Richter, Sculpture, figs. 336 and 331. A late Hellenistic parallel that looks still flatter and more regular than the Sardis example is in New York: Horn, Gewandstatuen, pl. 43. For the same arrangement of drapery and folds, see Hekler, Romische Gewandstatuen, fig. 23, dated Antonine (p. 196). Cf. Cat. 60 (Fig. 174).
See Also
Bibliography
Author
NHR