Reconstruction of Incised Relief of Standing Figure and Lions from the Synagogue Forecourt
Fig. 5. Reconstruction of incised relief of standing figure and lions from the Synagogue forecourt (C. S. Alexander). © Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/Harvard University.
These two well-known relief techniques admit considerable stylistic variation, depending on location and date. Even though locally made, the Sardis plaque clearly reflects an awareness of other artistic media. The sculptor’s main interest plainly lay with the lions, who are given the naturalistic proportions, features, and attitudes seen in contemporary depictions of wild animals. The greatest number of such images survive in floor mosaics depicting scenes of the arena and the hunt, occasions that occupied an increasingly important place in the Roman imagination. Mosaicists soon found that the untidy spontaneity of animal combat lent itself to the scattering of figures across a blank field, without the need for a unifying ground line or border. Such open, two-dimensional compositions apparently originated in the West and spread across the eastern Mediterranean from the late second or third century, reaching their greatest popularity in the fifth and early sixth centuries.10 The lions on the Sardis plaque are depicted in a similar way, as naturalistic and lively figures who stand isolated on the marble surface, without meaningful relationship to each other except to face the draped figure. By contrast, the static, frontal presentation of the figure draws from a different pictorial tradition, as is apparent in the sharp, angular folds of his garment. The combination of both approaches brings together the main stylistic currents of their day.
Rautman, Marcus. “Daniel at Sardis.” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (May 2010) 358 (2010): 50–51. Print.
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