Sabouroff head
MaterialMarble
Height23 cm
Createdc. 538 BC
Discoveredbefore 1885
Greece
Discovered byGiovanni Belzoni and Henry Beechey
Present locationBerlin, Germany

The Sabouroff head is a Late Archaic Greek marble sculpture. It is dated to c. 550–525 BC.[1] This head of a Kouros was named after Peter Alexandrovich Saburov, a collector of ancient Greek sculpture and antiquities. It is 23 centimeters in height. The sculpture is currently located in the Antikensammlung Berlin and allegedly from Attica or Aegina.[2] There are conjectures that it may also have been from Caria in Asia Minor.[3]

This marble head may have belonged to a life-size statue. It has been the object of various debates regarding the unusual design of the hair and beard. Men usually had long hair in 6th century Greek statues, but the beard was a common attribute in archaic sculpture. The treatment of the moustache, separate from the beard on the cheeks and chin, is very rare for Greek sculpture and gives an exotic look to the head. The head has been described as "nearer to a portrait than any other work surviving from Archaic Greece" (other than the Boxer Relief in Athens).[4]

Using an optical 3D-scanner the cast copy at the Heidelberg University was acquired and analyzed using the GigaMesh Software Framework. The geometric measurements using Voronoi cells and Geodesic distances at the high-resolution 3D-model show an unbalance and a slight tilting of the head indicating that it was part of an equestrian statue.[5][6]

References

  1. ^ Snodgrass, Anthony M. (1981). Archaic Greece: The Age of Experiment. University of California Press. p. 182. ISBN 9780520043732.
  2. ^ "Arachne - individual object 80830: Kopf eines bärtigen Mannes (sog. Kopf Sabouroff) - Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Antikensammlung Berlin". arachne.uni-koeln.de.
  3. ^ Morris, Sarah P. (1995). Daidalos and the Origins of Greek Art. Princeton University Press. p. 298. ISBN 069100160X.
  4. ^ Stieber, Mary (2010). The Poetics of Appearance in the Attic Korai. University of Texas Press. p. 98. ISBN 9780292773493.
  5. ^ Hölscher, Tonio; Krömker, Susanne; Mara, Hubert (2020), "Der Kopf Sabouroff in Berlin: Zwischen archäologischer Beobachtung und geometrischer Vermessung", Gedenkschrift für Georgios Despinis (in German), Athens, Greece: Benaki Museum, p. 125-138, ISBN 978-960-476-263-7, ISSN 1109-4109
  6. ^ Voronoi Cells & Geodesic Distances - Sabouroff head on YouTube. Analysis using the GigaMesh Software Framework as described by Hölscher et al., cf. doi:10.11588/heidok.00027985.
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