Kriegerkopf aus dem Ostgiebel des Aphaiatempels von Ägina

Staatliche Antikensammlungen und Glyptothek

Description

The warrior’s head was once part of a group of sculptures that adorned the gable of the Aphaea temple at Aegina. Aegina is only a few miles from the port of Athens, Piraeus. In the archaic period of the seventh and sixth century BC, the island reached its highest economic and political heyday. Around 510 BC, the Aegeans began to build a new temple in their most important sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Aphaea. The limestone building was decorated with sculptures made of Parian marble. The groups on the two gables had Trojan wars as their theme: In the West, the conflict described by Homer in his Iliad was shown. In the East, however, another battle for the city was depicted which according to the mythological narrative had taken place a generation earlier.

The sculptural decoration of the Aphaea temple exactly spans the border between two stylistic phases of Greek art: while the decoration on the western gable is still late Archaic, the one of the eastern gable is already early Classical. Nowhere else such a dramatic change in an era of ancient art history is so vividly documented as here. This fact makes the Aeginetans one of the most important monuments of Greek art.

The gable sculptures of the Aphaea temple were discovered in April 1811 by a group of German and English architects and archaeologists. One year later, they were bought at auction for the Bavarian Crown Prince Louis (1786-1868). They have been in the Glyptothek since 1827.