Reconstruction of Incised Relief of Standing Figure and Lions from the Synagogue Forecourt
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 f...