Art Paper

Pieces of artwork contain an assortment of pictorial conventions that tells us the story about the object. Such is the case for Marble capital and finial in the form of sphinx. This work was believed to have been from the Greek culture during the Archaic period in ca. 530 B.C. This marble capital and sphinx was initially placed on the grave of a youth and a little girl. The sphinx is a legendary creature that has a lion’s body and a human head. This figure was acknowledged in a variety of forms throughout the eastern Mediterranean region from the Bronze Age onward. Greeks represented it as a winged female and repeatedly placed its image on grave monuments as protector of the dead. A sense of dominance and authority is portrayed in Marble capital and finial in the form of sphinx through texture, pose, and use of stylization.
Although this mythological woman does not exist, the face has the features of a woman which makes it naturalistic. It has smooth marble eyes, lips, and nose like any human being has. The eyes seem to follow us, giving us a feeling that we’re being watched. The surface of the sculpture is smooth and polished all around though several textures are conveyed on the hair and arms, like the marble capital it sits on. However, there aren’t any signs of verism which makes the sphinx’s face idealized. Since this mythological figure is given human characteristics, one can sense that this figure has the power of a human. It is even more interesting that the protector of the dead is a woman and not a man. The marble capital has plentiful traces of complementary colors. Black, red, and blue pigments are used to carve it. The capital is in the form of two double coiled scrolls designed like a lyre (a stringed instrument). The use of primary colors and warm colors shows that the marble capital the sphinx stands on is essential. The figure is life size and it resembles the importance because it is the only figure there. It may not be wide or tall enough but