Lycian Votive Relief: Twelve Gods

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1981.119
Title: Lycian Votive Relief: Twelve Gods
Classification: Sculpture
Work Type: sculpture
Date: 2nd-3rd century CE
Places: Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Lycia
Period: Roman Imperial period, Late
Culture: Roman Provincial
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/287005

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Limestone

Dimensions

36 cm h x 62 cm w x 7.5 cm d (14 3/16 x 24 7/16 x 2 15/16 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

inscription: In Greek, in two lines:

ΔWΔΕΚΑΘΕΟΙC ΚΑΤΕΠΙΤΑΓΗΝ / ΜΑCΑC

[Transcription: Δωδεκαθεοις κατεπιταγην Μασας]

[Translation: Masas to the Twelve Gods according to a command.]

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: [Art Market, Holland] sold; [through Christie's, Primitive Art, Antiquities and Islamic Works of Art, London, Wednesday, December 2, 1970, no. 94] to William Kelly Simpson; gift to Fogg Art Museum, 1981.

Reportedly found c. 100 km south of Ankara.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of William Kelly Simpson in memory of Michael C. Rockefeller
Accession Year: 1981
Object Number: 1981.119
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
101

Lycian Votive Relief

The right upper corner is broken away, with the head of three and the upper bodies of two (at the extreme right) missing. There are other minor chippings around the edges.

The rectangular plaque is carved with two registers of figures, a thin fillet molding above the flat surfaces between and below, either side of the lower niche with the standing figure in the center. In the upper row, carved in sunken relief, are thirteen male figures standing frontally, holding spears vertically in the right hand and wearing helmets and what seem to be cloaks over cuirasses with skirts. The central figure stands in a distyle baldachino with a fringed canopy and wears what seems to be an extra cloak (palumentum) around his shoulders.

A similar male figure without the extra cloak and with arms spread out to the sides (in an orans gesture) stands frontally in the lower, central niche. On either side, in a long, thin, rectangular register, are six seated dogs (or possibly bears). They are shown in profile, each group facing toward the male figure in the center.

The inscription in Greek appears on the flat band between the two registers of relief, with the name MASAS divided on the flat surfaces left and right of the lower central niche:

Δ W Δ E K A Θ Ε Ο Ι С
K A Τ Ε Π Ι Τ A Γ Η Ν

The twelve Gods according to a Command
Masas

The emperor or a chief stands in the upper center, flanked by the twelve gods represented as warrior-hunters. The figure in the lower center is either the priest of the cult or a regional official. He may also be Masas, the dedicant.

The rustic style of these reliefs is paralleled in the reverses of Greek Imperial coins struck in the cities of Pisidia under Claudius II (A.D. 268-270) and Aurelian (A.D. 270-275). This may give a good clue as to the date of this class of dedication, a number of which, with different names on them, are carved by the same hands.

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

Louis Robert, "Documents d'Asie Mineure", Bulletin de Corresondance Hellenique, vol. CVII, pp. 587-593
Christie's Sales Catalogue, auct. cat. (London, England, 1970), p. 30, no. 94, plate (text from Dr. Klaus Parlasca)
Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 113, no. 101
John Bodel and Stephen Tracy, Greek and Latin Inscriptions in the USA: A checklist, American Academy in Rome (New York, 1997), p. 48.
Gil H. Renberg, Unexplored Aspects of the Lycian "Twelve Gods Reliefs", Epigraphica Anatolica (2014), vol. 47, pp. 107-132, pp. 108-112, 130, fig. 1

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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1981.119: Lycian Votive Relief: Twelve Gods