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This chapter examines the role of non-iconic elements in the Roman visual arts, highlighting their contribution for the purposes of identifying, situating, and characterizing individual figures and whole scenes. Non-iconic or non-figural elements such as bases, frames, or supports, as well as features that relate to the material identity of an artwork (e.g., the type of metal, stone, and pigments), do not refer to things or facts about the subject or outside the artwork itself. Nonetheless, these elements play an essential role in establishing the meaning and context of an image. As recent scholarship has demonstrated, they participate in a complex semantics of visual codes and stereotypes designed to assist viewers in making sense of an image at both immediate and more sophisticated levels.
This chapter examines the role of non-iconic elements in the Roman visual arts, highlighting their contribution for the purposes of identifying, situating, and characterizing individual figures and whole scenes. Non-iconic or non-figural elements such as bases, frames, or supports, as well as features that relate to the material identity of an artwork (e.g., the type of metal, stone, and pigments), do not refer to things or facts about the subject or outside the artwork itself. Nonetheless, these elements play an essential role in establishing the meaning and context of an image. As recent scholarship has demonstrated, they participate in a complex semantics of visual codes and stereotypes designed to assist viewers in making sense of an image at both immediate and more sophisticated levels.
Les débats sur le « Colosse des Naxiens » consacré dans le sanctuaire d'Apollon à Délos, dont sont conservés la base inscrite et deux fragments du corps, avaient principalement porté, jusqu'au début des années 1990, sur la signification de la dédicace archaïque. Dans un article publié en 1993 j'avais avancé l'hypothèse que le torse et le bassin actuellement conservés dans l'Artémision appartenaient à l'Apollon colossal qui avait été érigé vers la fin de l'époque classique, en relation avec la seconde dédicace, en remplacement de la statue primitive détruite par la chute du palmier de Nicias, un événement remarquable mentionné par Plutarque. Cette hypothèse a été écartée par G. Gruben (1997), puis en partie reprise par W. Martini (2018) qui a proposé d'attribuer les deux fragments du corps à deux colosses différents. L'étude détaillée du témoignage des nombreux voyageurs qui, depuis le XV e siècle, ont vu et parfois commenté les restes du Colosse et sa base inscrite, associé à un examen critique des études de Gruben et Martini, montre que le torse et le bassin appartenaient bien à la même statue colossale qui aurait remplacé, en respectant approximativement son allure primitive, celle que les Naxiens avaient dédiée à Apollon vers le début du VI e siècle av. J.-C. On propose une nouvelle restitution du Colosse. Mots-clés. -Délos. Naxos. Apollon. Colosse. Sculpture archaïque. Kouros. Art archaïsant. A constantly renewed Delian enigma: the Naxian ColossusAbstract. -Until the early 1990s, debates on the "Naxian Colossus" dedicated in Apollo's sanctuary at Delos focused mostly on the meaning of its archaic dedication. In an article published in 1993, I considered the hypothesis that the torso and pelvis currently preserved in the Artemision belonged to the colossal Apollo erected in late Classical times. Associated with the second dedication, it may have replaced the primitive statue, which had been knocked down by the fall of Nicias' palm tree, a remarkable event related by Plutarch. This hypothesis has been rejected by G. Gruben (1997), then partially accepted by W. Martini (2018), who proposed to associate the two fragments to two different colossuses. The detailed study of testimonies by the numerous travelers, who since the fifteenth century saw and sometimes described the remains of the Colossus and its inscribed base, is combined with a critical examination of Gruben's and Martini's studies. This shows that the torso and pelvis belonged indeed to the same colossal statue, which may have replaced the one the Naxians had dedicated to Apollo in the early sixth century BC, reproducing approximatively its original figure. A new reconstruction of the Colossus is proposed.Keywords. -Delos. Naxos. Apollo. Colossus. Archaic sculpture. Kouros. Archaistic art.
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