À propos du sarcophage d’Amathonte

Abstract

Starting from a cursory remark – that the nude goddesses pressing their nipples which appear on one of the short sides of the Amathus sarcophagus now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, represent in large size the type of a limestone statuette from Idalion in the Louvre (h. : 10 cm) – the author examines the possibility that there may have been a workshop of sculptors who started working in the region of Golgoi at the end of the 6th cent. B. C. and then moved to Amathus, where they produced the finest examples of their art, namely the decorated sarcophagus of Amathus. Thus the sarcophagus from the Metropolitan Museum of Art found at Golgoi may be the precursor of the chariot team ; the theme of the dancing Bes appears on the crowns of goddesses, a series which was fashionable at the beginning of the first part of the 5th cent. B. C., especially on the head from Vouni and the colossal head of Worcester Museum, as well as on a small head from Arsos in the Cyprus Museum. The sphinxes on the upper part of the Amathus sarcophagus seem to resemble those who decorated in relief a stele from Golgoi, a fine work of art, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. With regard to the Hathoric stelae which seem to have been particular to Amathus, we may observe that those found at Kition and Paphos are very much like that of Amathus and their sculptor may also have been active at Kition. As for the decorative motives, used on the sarcophagus, festoons, volutes, lotus flowers, trees of life appear also on the stelae from Golgoi. We may thus suggest that the sculptor and his workshop who produced the finest works of the end of 6th and 5th cent. B. C. started their career at Golgoi and Kition, culminated their achievements at Amathus, without abandoning the central part of Cyprus where they continued working.