Decorative marble roundel with a relief depicting Apollo and Artemis slaying the children of Niobe.

Roman, probably 1st century BC. From Italy. Diameter 94 cm.

The Death of the Niobids, gold relief by Antonio Gentili (1519-1609). Gold sheet on a background
plate of lapis lazuli, decorated with carnelians. From a series of six mythological scenes
made in Rome around 1600, after models by Guglielmo della Porta, made 1552-1555.

Torso of a marble statue thought
to depict the Niobids' pedagogue.

Late Hadrianic period (117-138 AD) copy of a Greek
original. Found in 1840 in the Horti Sallustiani, Rome,
in the area of the co-called Nympheum.

Identified as the pedagogue of Niobe's children from a statue group
of the massacre of the Niobids, by comparison with copies of the
same type. He attempts to save one of the male children by grabbing
him by the arm and pulling him to his body. It has been suggested
that the figure may be Amphion, the father of the Niobids.

The so-called "Subiaco Ephebe" (or "Youth from Subiaco"), a marble
statue of a falling youth, perhaps depicting a fleeing or dying Niobid.

1st century AD, Roman Imperial period. Thought to be a copy of a late
Hellenistic bronze original of the 2nd century BC. Anatolian marble.
Discovered during excavations 1883-1884 by the Italian archaeologist
Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani (1845-1929) at the Villa di Nerone, Subiaco
(ancient Sublaqueum), near Rome [11].

A marble head from a statue of a sleeping or dead girl, perhaps a Niobid.

Found at Subiaco together with the "Subiaco Ephebe" (see above).

1st century AD, Imperial period. Thought to be a copy of a late
Hellenistic bronze original of the 2nd century BC. Anatolian marble.

A marble statue of a wounded Niobid, the head and arms now missing.
The pose of the nude figure is similar to that of the "Elder male Niobid"
in the Uffizi Niobid group in Florence (see below). Identified as a Niobid
partly from the pose and the hole in the figure's right side, into which
it is thought a bronze arrow was inserted.

Circa 440-430 BC. From Rome. Height 117.8 cm.

Altes Museum, Berlin. Inv. No. 1958.1.

The "Chiaramonti Niobid", a fragmentary marble
statue thought to depict a daughter of Niobe.

Named after the Chiaramonti Museum where
it was previously exhibited. Height 168 cm.

Two fragments of a marble relief panel depicting
the slaughter of the Niobids by Apollo and Artemis.

Antonine period, 2nd century AD. Pentelic marble. Excavated
1952-1954 at the Temple of Poseidon at Isthmia, Corinthia.

The second fragmentary relief panel of the slaughter of the Niobids (?)
in the Isthmia Archaeological Museum. Slab 5, Figure 5.

Engraving of a painting depicting Niobe among a group of female mythological
figures, with their names inscribed in Greek: Leto (Λητώ), Niobe (Νιόβη) and
Phoebe (Φοίβη) standing, and Aglaia (Ἀγλαΐα) and Hilaeira (Ιλάειρα) kneeling
and playing knucklebones (ἀστράγαλοι, astragaloi).

Monochrome painting in red on a white marble plaque. From Herculaneum.
1st century BC - 1st century AD, in the style of 5th century BC.
Height 45.7 cm, width 38.1 cm.

The marble statue of "Niobe and her youngest daughter" (photo, right) depicts Niobe holding one of her daughters in an attempt to protect her from the deadly arrows of Apollo and Artemis. It is believed to have stood in the centre of an ancient statue group showing the dramatic death of Niobe's children, known as the Uffizi Niobid Group, since 1779 exhibited in the Sala della Niobe (Hall of Niobe or Niobe’s Room) in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

Fourteen ancient statues were found in March or April 1583 in the Vigna Tommasini, a vineyard outside the Porta San Giovanni, Rome, in the area which had been part of one of the imperial gardens, either the ancient Horti Lamiani or Horti Maecenatis. Around eleven of the works discovered are thought to have belonged to the original group depicting the Niobids. The sculptures were purchased the same year by Cardinal Ferdinando de Medici (1549-1609; from 1587 Grand Duke of Tuscany), who had them restored and set up in the garden of the Villa Medici, Rome. In 1588 he sent casts to Florence.

The statues in the Medici garden, particularly that of Niobe, were admired by the 18th century traveller James "Athenian" Stuart (1713-1788):

"... among the excellent sculptures in the Medicean gardens at Rome, there is a celebrated statue of Niobe, the attitude and countenance of which are wonderfully expressive of her anguish at the sight of her slaughtered children, and her apprehensions for those who survive." [14]

The statues were later purchased by Peter Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1747-1792, from 1790 Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II), who had most of them moved from Rome to Livorno in 1769, where they were again restored by Innocenzo Spinazzi between 1770 and 1776 when they were taken to Florence. The remaining four statues were taken from the Villa Medici to Florence in 1778. In 1779 the entire group were arranged in the Sala della Niobe, the room especially designed for them by the architect Gaspare Maria Paoletti.

For many years there has been debate over which of the statues now in the Uffizi were part of the Vigna Tommasini find, and which actually represent Niobids. No detailed list was made of the fourteen Vigna Tommasini statues, and contemporary sources appear to indicate that "Niobe and her youngest daughter" and a statue of two wrestlers (see below) were each counted as two sculptures. According to Ovid [see note 1], Niobe had seven sons and seven daughters, and so with Niobe and the pedagogue there ought to be sixteen figures. Ferdinando de Medici added non-related statues from the Medici collection, including a horse (see below), to complete the set displayed in his garden. On arrival in the Uffizi other non-related but better-preserved statues were exhibited to complete the group in place of some of the Vigna Tommasini statues.

It is currently considered that of the eighteen "Niobids" in the Uffizi, ten are from the Vigna Tommasini, four are "doubles", including a so-called "Psyche", and four are non-related statues resembling or restored as Niobids: a "Selene" (the so-called "Trophos", τροφός, nurse), the so-called "Narkissos" and two "Muses" (see for example the photo below, right). Another "Psyche", now in the Bardini Museum, Florence, was suggested as the eleventh statue from the Vigna Tommasini group in the late 20th century.

Usually described as being made of Pentelic marble, recent analysis has shown that only six of the ten Uffizi Niobid statues from the Vigna Tommasini are made of marble from Mount Penteli, the other four being of Anatolian marble from the vicinty of Aphrodisias [15].

Since their discovery various theories have proposed that the statues are either Roman period copies, perhaps from the reign of Nero (54-68 AD), or Hellenistic Greek originals of the 4th or 3rd century BC, based on Classical models. It has even been suggested that Paionios of Mende, Skopas or Praxiteles may have sculpted the originals. They are thought to have been made for the pediment of a temple or to have decorated a nymphaeum (ornamental fountain) in a way similar to the Niobid group found at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli. The third possibility is that they were originally pedimental sculptures later placed in a nymphaeum in the Horti Lamiani or Horti Maecenatis. A semi-circular structure discovered in the 19th century nearby, in the area of the modern Piazza Dante, may have been such a nymphaeum.

One theory, once widely accepted but now rejected by many sholars, is that the group was brought to Rome from Cilicia in southern Anatolia (Asia Minor) around 38 BC by the Roman general and politician Gaius Sosius, and placed in the Temple of Apollo Sosias. This theory is based on a remark by Pliny the Elder:

"With reference, too, to the Dying Children of Niobe, in the Temple of the Sosian Apollo, there is an equal degree of uncertainty, whether it is the work of Scopas or of Praxiteles."

Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, Book 36, chapter 4. At Perseus Digital Library.

The connection with Praxiteles appears to be strengthened by a short epigram by the Roman poet Ausonius:

"I once was Niobe, and fill'd a throne,
Till fate severe transform'd me into stone:
Behold the change which mimic art can give!
From stone Praxiteles has made me live." [16]

The 19th century English architect and archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell, who studied the Uffizi Niobid Group in 1816, believed that the statues were those mentioned by Pliny, and that they were Greek originals from the pediment of a temple (see below).

Since 1583, several similar statues and groups have been discovered, most in the vicinity of Rome, including a group of seven sculptures found at the villa of Marcus Valerius Messalla Corvinus in 2012 [17]. Two marble statuettes, one of Niobe and her youngest daughter, a smaller version of the Uffizi statue, and the other of Artemis with a bow, perhaps from a group, were discovered at Tsoutsouros, Crete in 1929 [18]. It now appears that the story of the slaughter of the Niobids was represented in several artworks from the time of Augustus, and that the theme was revived during the reign of Hadrian. These works may have been based on a common original which is as yet unknown.

In September 1800 two of the statues, a daughter and lying son (see below), were shipped to Palermo along with other artworks from the Uffizi in order to avoid their seizure by Napoleon's troops. They were returned to Florence in February 1803.

The 10 Niobids from the Vigna Tommasini:
• Niobe and her youngest daughter. Inv. No. 294.
• Elder male Niobid. Inv. No. 302.
• Younger male Niobid. Inv. No. 292.
• Fleeing female Niobid. Inv. No. 293.
• Fleeing female Niobid, Chiaramonti type. Inv. No. 300.
• Dying male Niobid. Inv. No. 298.
• Male Niobid on his knee. Inv. No. 289.
• Male Niobid climbing a rock (or second Niobid). Inv. No. 13864.
• Male Niobid climbing a rock (or third Niobid). Inv. No. 306.
• Pedagogue. Inv. No. 301.

Plaster cast of the head of a male Niobid.

Abguss-Sammlung, Semperbau, Dresden.
Inv. No. ASN 1985. From the plaster cast
collection of Anton Raphael Mengs.

Plaster cast of a bust of a "daughter of Niobe".

Abguss-Sammlung, Semperbau, Dresden.
Inv. No. ASN 2451. From the plaster
cast collection of Anton Raphael Mengs.

The English architect and archaeologist Charles Robert Cockerell (1788-1863) stayed in Italy 1815-1817 on his way back to England, on the last leg of his seven-year Grand Tour around the Mediterranean. In Rome he was feted by intellectuals and the elite for his adventurous and pioneering voyages, exploring ancient sites in Greece, Turkey, Sicily and southern Italy, and his excavations of the temples at Aegina and Bassai.

In 1812 Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (King Ludwig I of Bavaria from 1825) had purchased the pedimental sculptures taken by Cockerell and his companions from the Aegina temple (the "Aegina Marbles") [20], and commissioned the Danish neo-classicist sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770-1844), who had lived in Rome since 1797, to restore them. Cockerell worked in Thorvaldsen's studio on his reconstruction of the pediments.

In 1816 he travelled from Rome to Florence and visited the Uffizi with Jakob Ludwig Salomon Bartholdy (1779-1825), the Prussian Consul-General in Rome, who suggested that the Uffizi Niobid Group may have been from a temple pediment.

Working from this suggestion, and believing that the statues were those mentioned by Pliny (see above), and that they were Greek originals, Cockerell studied and drew the sculptures, and made drawings reconstructing their appearance on such a pediment. In 1816 he produced a pamphlet with etchings of two of the drawings and a brief account in Italian of his hypothesis, and dedicated the copy above to Thorvaldsen. The idea was accepted by many at the time, including the president and members of the Florentine Academy, who elected him as a member. He went on to produce a book in Italian on the Uffizi Niobid Group with another reconstruction of the pediment and drawings of seventeen individual sculptures, including the horse. The first of several editions was published in Pisa in 1818.

See: Charles Robert Cockerell, Le statue della favola di Niobe della Imp. e R. Galleria di Firenze. Presso Niccoló Capurro, Pisa, 1821. At the Internet Archive.

The British Museum also has a copy of the pamphlet etching, Inv. No. 2012,5001.637, although it is not on display and as yet there is no photo of it on their website.

See: britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/...

Another reconstruction drawing of the conjectural pediment was made in 1817 by the German artist Johann Heinrich Wolff (1792-1869), who collaborated with Cockerell on the project. A copy on transparent paper is now in the Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel. Inv. No. L GS 15112.

The statue has been restored, with the addition of the missing right forearm and hand, the left leg below the knee and the right leg below the upper thigh.

There are several extant ancient statues and fragments believed to be depictions of dying male Niobids lying on their backs, two of which are similar in composition to this one, with the figure's right arm bent and the hand on the head, and left hand resting on the stomach just below the chest:

Dying male Niobid from the Vigna Tommasini find, part of the Uffizi Niobid Group (see above).
Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Inv. No. 298. Length 185 cm. Restored in 1994.

Marble statue of a female figure,
the so-called Niobid.

2nd century AD, Roman period copy of a late
3rd century BC Greek original. Height 150 cm.

National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
Inv. No. 6391. From the Farnese Collection.

"248 (6391). Female statue, to which a head with modern neck has been added. The arms are restored. The girl, clad in chiton and himation is stooping slightly as she walks and bends her head back as if to watch something that threatens her from above. She is therefore designated as a Niobid or as the nurse of the Niobids, but the motive frequently recurs in ancient art. The figure seems originally to have represented a Danaid going to the fountain or a Dancing Muse, and is derived from a work of the Hellenistic period."

1. Apollodorus on the Niobe myth

Apollodorus, The Library, Book 3, chapter 5, section 6. English Translation by Sir James George Frazer, in 2 Volumes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann Ltd., London, 1921. At Perseus Digital Library.

For further information about Apollodorus (or Pseudo-Apollodorus) see note in Medusa part 1.

Mount Cithaeron (Κιθαιρών, Kithairon) is a mountain range in central Greece which forms a boundary between Attica and Boeotia, with Thebes to its north.

The myth of Niobe was also related by Ovid (43 BC - 17/18 AD):

2. Pausanias on the "Weeping Rock of Niobe" and the Choragic Monument of Thrasyllos

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book I, Chapter 21, section 3. English translation by W.H.S. Jones and H.A. Ormerod, in 4 Volumes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA; William Heinemann, London, 1918. At Perseus Digital Library.

3. Niobe's spring

4. Sappho on Leto and Niobe

"Λάτω καὶ Νιόβα μάλα μὲν φίλαι ἦσαν ἔταιραι"

Sappho (Ψάπφω, circa 630-570 BC), Fragment 142.

5. Pausanias on Amphion and the Niobids at Thebes

Amphion, Leto and the plague:

Pausanias, Description of Greece, Book 9, chapter 5, sections 8-9. At Perseus Digital Library.

The tombs and funeral pyre of the Niobids at Thebes:

6. Aulus Gellius on the number of Niobe's chlidren

The Latin author and grammarian, Aulus Gellius (circa 125-180 AD) noted the various numbers of Niobids given by Greek poets, ascribing the discrepency to accumulative errors in manuscripts: "error has grown and found its way into more manuscripts" (Attic Nights, Book 20, chapter 6).

Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights, Book 20, chapter 7. English Translation. John C. Rolfe. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. and William Heinemann, London, 1927. At Perseus Digital Library.

Both Euripides and Sophocles wrote tragedies titled Niobe, of which only fragments have survived. So far I have not found any of the relevant passages of Sappho, Bacchylides, Pindar, Lasos, Alkman or Mimnermos mentioned by Aelian and Gellius; most appear to be lost. Although both authors are discussing "the Greek poets" and "the Ancients", it may be significant that neither mentions Ovid, who is often referred to by modern scholars in relation to the number of Niobids depicted in statue groups.
 
7. Aelian on the number of Niobe's chlidren

Claudius Aelianus (Κλαύδιος Αἰλιανός; circa 175-235 AD), usually referred to as Aelian, was a Roman author and teacher of rhetoric, born at Praeneste (today Palestrina), 35 km east of Rome, who flourished during the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus. He is known as the author of two surviving works in Greek, usually referred to by their titles in Latin: De Natura Animalium (On the Nature of Animals; Greek, Περὶ Ζῴων Ἰδιότητος), and Varia Historia (Various History; Greek, Ποικίλη Ἱστορία), which has survived in an abridged form. Both books consist of miscellaneous articles and anecdotes.

The translation of the passage, which I have slightly tweaked, is by Thomas Stanley, 1665:

Claudius Aelianus, His Various History, Book 12, Chapter XXXVI: Of the number of the Children of Niobe. English translation by Thomas Stanley. Printed for Thomas Dring, London, 1665. At James Eason's website, Penelope, University of Chicago.

The orignal Greek text:

"ἐοίκασιν οἱ ἀρχαῖοι ὑπὲρ τοῦ ἀριθμοῦ τῶν τῆς Νιόβης παίδων μὴ συνᾴδειν ἀλλήλοις. Ὅμηρος μὲν ἓξ λέγει ἄρρενας καὶ τοσαύτας κόρας, Λάσος δὲ δὶς ἑπτὰ λέγει, Ἡσίοδος δὲ ἐννέα καὶ δέκα, εἰ μὴ ἄρα οὐκ εἰσὶν Ἡσιόδου τὰ ἔπη, ἀλλ᾽ ὡς πολλὰ καὶ ἄλλα κατέψευσται αὐτοῦ. Ἀλκμὰν δέκα φησί, Μίμνερμος εἴκοσι, καὶ Πίνδαρος τοσούτους."

8. Hyginus on Niobe, Amphion and their children

For further information about Hyginus, see the note in Homer part 2. Sections in Fabulae by Hyginus dealing with Niobe and the Niobids:

section 9, Niobe
"Amphion and Zetus, sons of Jove [Zeus] and Antiopa, daughter of Nycteus, by the command of Apollo surrounded Thebes with a wall up to [corrupt text], and driving Laius, son of King Labdacus, into exile, themselves held he royal power there.

Amphion took in marriage Niobe, daughter of Tantalus and Dione, by whom he had seven sons and as many daughters. These children Niobe placed above those of Latona [Leto], and spoke rather contemptuously against Apollo and Diana [Artemis] because Diana was girt in man’s attire, and Apollo wore long hair and a woman’s gown. She said, too, that she surpassed Latona in number of children. Because of this Apollo slew her sons with arrows as they were hunting in the woods, and Diana shot and killed the daughters in the palace, all except Chloris.

But the mother, bereft if her children, is said to have been turned into stone by weeping on Mount Sipylus, and her tears today are said to trickle down. Amphion, however, tried to storm the temple of Apollo, and was slain by the arrows of Apollo."

section 10, Chloris
"Chloris was the only daughter of Niobe and Amphion who survived. Neleus, Hippocoon’s son, married her, and she bore to him twelve sons.

When Hercules [Herakles] was besieging Pylus he slew Neleus and ten of his sons, but the eleventh, Periclymenus, was changed to an eagle by the favour of Neptune [Poseidon], his grandfather, and escaped death. Now the twelfth, Nestor, was the one at Ilium [Troy]. He is said to have lived three generations by favour of Apollo, for the years which Apollo had taken from Chloris and her brothers he granted to Nestor."

section 10, Children of Niobe
"Tantalus, Ismenus, Eupinytus, Phaedimus, Sipylus, Damasichthon, Archenor; Neara, Phthia, Astycratia, Chloris, [corrupt text], Eudoxa, Ogygia. These are the sons and daughters of Niobe, wife of Amphion."

Periclymenus, son of Chloris, the only surviving daughter of Niobe was one of the Argonauts:

section 14, Argonauts assembled
"Castor and Pollux [the Dioskouroi], sons of Jove and Leda, daughter of Thestius, Lacedaemonians; others call them Spartans, both beardless youths. It is written that at the same time stars appeared on their heads, seeming to have fallen there. Periclymenus, son of Neleus and Chloris, daughter of Amphion and Niobe; he was from Pylos."

Hyginus, Fabulae, sections 1-49, translated and edited by Mary Amelia Grant. At the Theoi Project.

section 69, Adrastus
Here, Hyginus relates the claim that Amphion named the famous seven gates of Thebes after his daughters.

"For Amphion, who had surrounded Thebes with a wall set in it seven gates named for his daughters. These were Thera, Cleodoxe, Astynome, Astycratia, Chias, Ogygia, Chloris."

9. The Niobid relief in the British Museum and the Zeus throne in Olympia

See:

10. Niobids from the Horti Sallustiani, Rome

See: Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani, Wanderings in the Roman Campagna, pages 353-354. Constable & Co., London, and Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston and New York, 1909. At the Internet Archive.

11. Villa di Nerone, Subiaco

Nero's Villa (Latin, Villa Neroniana Sublaquensis or Villa Sublacencis; Italian, Villa di Nerone) is outside Subiaco (ancient Sublaqueum), a town 70 km east of Rome. The large building complex, which once stood near three lakes fed by the Anio river (today the Teverone), is thought to have been built before 60 AD. It was mentioned by Tacitus (circa 55 - circa 120 AD), who wrote that Nero was dining there when it was struck by lightning.

Cornelius Tacitus, The Annals, book 14, chapter 22. At Perseus Digital Library.

The location and geography of Sublaquensis were briefly described by Pliny the Elder (who did not mention the villa) and the Roman civil engineer, author and politician Sextus Julius Frontinus (circa 40 - 103 AD), in whose De Aqueductibus Urbis Romae (The Aqueducts of Rome, also known as De Aquis) the villa is mentioned as "... villam Neronianam Sublacensem".

Pliny the Elder, Natural history, Book 3, chapter 17. At Perseus Digital Library.

Sextus Julius Frontinus, The Aqueducts of Rome, Book 2, chapter 93. At Bill Thayer's LacusCurtius website, University of Chicago.

12. The Nieborow Niobe bust in Warsaw

A similar bust, known as the "Nieborów Niobe", is now in the Nieborow Palace, Nieborow, central Poland, a branch of the Polish National Museum (Warsaw). Inv. No. Nb 11. Height 58.3 cm, width 53 cm, depth 17 cm (according to another source, height 75 cm, width 45 cm, depth 40 cm).

Dated to the 1st - 2nd century AD and thought to be a copy of a Hellenistic original of the 4th century BC. The marble head was found 1763-1764 at the Villa dei Quintili on the Via Appia, south of Rome, after which it was restored and placed in a modern bust. Purchased in Rome by the banker, antiquarian and collector Lyde Browne (? - 1787) before 1779, it was sold between 1784 and 1787, along with a large number of ancient sculptures from the collection in his country house, Warren House in Wimbledon, to Catherine II of Russia (Catherine the Great, reigned 1762-1796) for the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. In 1802 it was given to Helena Radziwiłłowa (1753-1821) who placed it in the Nieborow Palace (Pałac w Nieborowie, formerly known as the Radziwill Palace, Pałac Radziwiłłów), where she and her husband Prince Michał Hieronim Radziwiłł had gathered a large art collection.

Surviving records concerning the provenance and history of many of the ancient sculptures from Lyde Browne's collection are sparing and often vague, and have only recently become a subject of scholarly investigation.

Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani (1845-1929),
Italian archaeologist.

13. Anton Raphael Mengs and the Dresden cast collection

Around 1753, while living in Rome, the German-Bohemian painter Anton Raphael (or Raffael) Mengs (1728-1779) began acquiring what would turn out to be an enormous number of plaster casts of sculptures, mainly of classical works as well as some Renaissance and Baroque examples, in the collections in Rome and Florence, initially as a commission for King Carlos III of Spain, whose court painter he became from 1761 to 1769, and as teaching aids for pupils at his studio in the Via Sistina. His collection became known as die Abguss-Sammlung von Anton Raphael Mengs (the cast collection of Anton Raphael Mengs) or die Mengs'sche Abguss-Sammlung.

After his death 833 casts from the collection were purchased in 1783 on behalf of Friedrich August III, Elector of Saxony (1750-1827; from 1806 King Friedrich August I, the first king of Saxony) from Madame Maron, Mengs' sister. They were transported by ship in 96 boxes, and arrived in Dresden in 1784. The journey by water and the long period they spent in the boxes caused damage to some of the casts. In the same year Friedrich August gave them to the Kunstakademie. Casts from the collection were first exhibited in 1786, and in 1794 they were set up in the Mengs'ische Museum "unter dem Saale der Bildergallerie am Neumarkt" (under the halls of the Picture Gallery on the New Marketplace), on the ground floor of the Stallgebäude, the former palace stables, the first floor of which had been converted into an art gallery for paintings (now the Johanneum, which houses the Dresden Transport Museum). They were admired by a number of visitors to Dresden, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Further casts from other sources, including from Egyptian, Assyrian and Etruscan works, were subsequently acquired, and the collection steadily grew. In 1857 the collection was moved to the newly-built Neues Königliches Museum (New Royal Museum) in the Semperbau (Semper Gallery, named after its architect Gottfried Semper) on the north side of Zwinger courtyard, where the collection of antiquites was also housed.

With the archaeological boom of the second half of the 19th century, museums and collectors competed to acquire newly discovered artefacts from sites such as Athens, Pergamon and Ephesus. When the originals could not be obtained, museum directors contented themselves with casts, which at some places were being produced on an almost industrial scale. During excavations at Olympia in December 1876, casts from finds were delivered to Dresden within weeks of their discovery.

The Dresden museums rapidly ran out of space for the new acquisitions and, after much polital debate, the 16th century Zeughaus (armoury) was transformed 1884-1887 into a museum, named the Albertinum after King Albert of Saxony (reigned 1873-1902), to house the Sächsiche Hauptstaatsarchiv (Main State Archive of Saxony) and the Königliche Skultpurensammlung (Royal Sculpture Collection), which included ancient sculptures, mosaics and other objects, some works from the Renaissance and later, and the cast collection. The second floor, dedicated to casts, was the first part of the museum to be opened to the public on 19 January 1891, with separate rooms for works of particular artists or themes, such as Michelangelo, Praxiteles, Lisyppos, the Parthenon, Pergamon, Olympia and the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. The Niobe-Zimmer (Niobe Room) exhibited full casts of the Uffizi Niobid sculptures (rather than just busts), purchased by the museum's director Georg Treu (1843-1921; from October 1882 director of the antiquities and cast collections) at an auction in Frankfurt am Main in 1889.

During World War II bombing of Dresden on 13th February 1945 part of the Albertinum was damaged and some of the larger casts were destroyed. After the war the casts and original antiquities of the Dresden Antikensammlung, including sculptures and ceramics, were taken by the Soviet Union to Moscow, but returned to Dresden in 1958.

Now part of the Skulpturensammlung der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden (Sculpture Collection of the Dresden State Art Collections), the casts have been moved a number of times since the war. First stored in the cellar of the Albertinum (now the museum for sculpture and modern art), they were moved due to flooding of the River Elbe in 2002. A few of the casts of ancient sculptures were until recently exhibited in the Albertinum, but since 2016 around 120 of the over 400 surviving casts have been exhibited in the Semperbau, which now exhibits paintings of the Old Masters (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister).

Plaster casts of sculptures were for long highly prized by many museums, universities, art schools and private collections around the world. For those who were not able to travel to Italy, Greece or Turkey (i.e. most people), including students and art lovers, they provided the only opportunity to appreciate and study famous or exemplary artworks. Many were coloured and polished to imitate the marble or bronze surfaces of the originals. However, during the late 20th century, as more people were able to travel to museums further abroad or had access to higher quality images of originals in books and films and on websites, casts began to seem dull and definitely out of fashion. Casts are difficult to maintain and keep clean and fresh-looking, and some cast collections were long-neglected. To anyone who has seen an original of fine translucent marble or the patina of an ancient bronze, plaster appears flat and lifeless.

Casts became an embarrassing waste of space for many museums attempting to update their image, and they were often consigned to storerooms and depots, or sold or otherwise disposed of. In one of the worst cases, in 1950 the casts of the Rijksmuseum collection in Amsterdam were deliberately smashed up or sold off as junk (see: Frederik Theodoor Johannes Godin, Antiquity in plaster: Production, reception and destruction of plaster copies from the Athenian Agora to Felix Meritis in Amsterdam, page 270. PhD thesis, University of Amsterdam, 2009).

However, many casts remain fascinating and still have something to teach us about the originals and their history, not to mention the history of art connoisseurship, collecting and museums themselves. Some casts are now all that remain of several lost artworks.

A number of catalogues of the Dresden cast collection were published in the 19th century. None are illustrated, and in all entries are numbered in order of the casts' positions in the respective museum at the time they were written. The catalogue numbers do not relate to the modern invoice numbers. Entries for each cast are usually short, some with little or no information about the originals.

The PDF versions available online do not contain searchable text.

Johann Gottlob Matthäy (1753-1832), Verzeichniss der im königl. sächs. Mengs'ischen Museum enthaltenen antiken und modernen Bildwerke in Gyps. Arnoldischen Buchhandlung, Dresden and Leipzig, 1831. PDF at Die Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB).
100 pages, plus a 6-page introduction and frontispiece showing the cast collection in the vaulted hall of the Mengs'sche Museum. Very brief descriptions of cast. Sizes are given in Fuss (F) and Zoll (Z), the German equivalents of foot and inch. Only 72 pages deal with the cast collection. Strangely, the contents from page 73 onwards consist of unrelated lists: uncommented lists of some of the sculptures in museums in Rome, Florence and Naples, inexplicably in French; an advertisement listing Matthäy's own copies of sculptures; and a list of books about Dresden.

Carl Theodor Chalybaeus, Das Königlich Sächsische Mengs’ische Museum zu Dresden. Blochmann, Dresden, 1843. PDF at SLUB (lovely name for a library).
48 pages and a 2-page introduction. More detailed entries, but terse, very academic and full of unexplained abbreviations, many literary references.

Hermann Hettner, Das Königliche Museum der Gypsabgüsse zu Dresden. E. Blochmann & Sohn, Dresden, 1881 (vierte Auflage, 4th edition). PDF at SLUB.
179 pages and a 2-page introduction. The most detailed entries. Includes casts of Egyptian, Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek (with sculptures from the Parthenon and Olympia) and Graeco-Roman works, at the time displayed in separate rooms of the Semperbau. There is also a section on the casts of Medieval and modern works then in the Zwinger, and an appendix on casts in the Bust Room.

See also:

14. James Stuart on the Uffizi Niobid Group

James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, The Antiquities of Athens, measured and delineated, Volume II, Chapter IV, page 93. Priestley and Weale, London, 1825. At Heidelberg University Digital Library.

For further information about James Stuart (1713-1788), see Athens Acropolis gallery page 12, 8, 32, 35 and 36.

15. The marble types of the Uffizi Niobid Group

Many ancient sculptures have been judged to be made of particular types of marble (Pentelic, Parian, Proconnesian, Carrara, Pavonazetto...), or described as fine or coarse grained or crystalline, veined, and so on. Often such descriptions have been based on the reports and opinions of one or two scholars, published in academic books, articles and catalogues, many now more than a century old. Such opinions and theories are even referred to as "traditional" (see also the note on the Dionysus page).

Identification of marbles has influenced debates and led to much speculation on where, when and even by whom the sculptures were made. In the case of the various Niobid groups, many scholars would love to know whether they were Greek originals taken as booty to Rome, or made during the Roman period, either as originals or copies of much older Greek works.

Recently, new techniques and technologies have allowed mineralogists and experts from several fields to analyze stone more accurately. The methods are still not foolproof and such work remains difficult, not the least because the marbles, consisting of limestone compressed by aeons of geological activity, are often mixed with other minerals. Marble samples from a particular quarrying area can vary widely in physical structure and chemical composition, whereas their complex structures often make them difficult to distinguish from those from an other area.

The Uffizi Niobid Group presents particular problems for analysis, since it includes sculptures which do not belong to those found in the Vigna Tommasini in 1583, and restorers used other types of marble and parts and fragments of other sculptures for their repairs. An Italian team have studied and analyzed the marble of eleven of the Uffizi statues, including one which was not originally part of the group (male Niobid climbing a rock, Inv. No. 304), taking into account properties such as colour, texture, translucency, crystal structure and isotopic density. They concluded that individual sculptures were made of different types of marble, suggesting that they may have been made at separate workshops, perhaps in Greece and Anatolia (Asia Minor). The marbles are thought to be:

Pentelic marble, from Mount Penteli, north of Athens (6 statues);

Docimium (Δοκίμειον, modern Iscehisar, Turkey) and Göktepe marble, from near Aphrodisias, Phrygia/Caria, west-central Anatolia (4 statues);

Paros II, Chorodaki marble, from the Chorodaki valley (Lakkoi), Paros, although very similar to Proconnesian marble (1 statue, Inv. No. 304).

See: Donato Attanasio, Chiara Boschi, Susanna Bracci, Emma Cantisani, Flavio Paolucci, The Greek and Asiatic marbles of the Florentine Niobids. Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 66, February 2016, pages 103-111. At researchgate.net.

16. Ausonius on Niobid

Decimus or Decimius Magnus Ausonius (circa 310-395 AD), usually referred to as Ausonius, was a Roman poet and teacher of rhetoric from Burdigala in Aquitaine (modern Bordeaux, France). The translation of the epigram, taken from Anthologia Graeca, 16.129, has been quoted in many publications, including:

The Works of Anacreon, Sappho, and Musaeus, translated from the Greek by Francis Fawkes, note on Ode XX, page 116. Whittingham and Rowland, London, 1810.

Another version of the epigram in Latin and English:

In Signum Matmoreum Niobes
Vivebam: sum facta silex, quae deinde polita
Praxiteli manibus vivo iterum Niobe.
reddidit artificis manus omnia, sed sine sensu:
hunc ego, cum laesi numina, non habui.

For a marble Statue of Niobe
I used to live: I became stone, and then being
polished by the hand of Praxiteles, I now live again
as Niobe. The artist's hand has restored me all but
sense: that, when I offended gods, I had not.

17. Niobid statues discovered at the Corvinus villa

18. The Niobe and Artemis statuettes from Tsoutsouros, Crete

The marble statuettes of Niobe and her youngest daughter and Artemis with a bow were found during rescue excavations in 1929 at Tsoutsouros (Τσούτσουρος), a small village on the south coast of Crete, 12 km south of the town of Arkalochori (Αρκαλοχώρι) and around 63 km south of Heraklion. They have been variously dated to the 2nd - 4th century AD, despite the fact that hardly anybody seems to have studied them. A cave north of the village is believed to have been a sanctuary of Eileithyia (Εἰλείθυια), the Greek goddess of childbirth and midwifery, probably of Minoan origin, who was later associated with Artemis.

The statuettes are now in the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, Crete.
Niobe and youngest daughter, Inv. No. 265.
Artemis with a bow, Inv. No. 266.

The Greek archaeologist Spyridon (Spyros) Nikolaou Marinatos (Σπυρίδων (Σπύρος) Νικολάου Μαρινάτος, 1901-1974), Chief of Antiquities of Crete, wrote a short report in Greek on the finds in 1934, since when little has been written about them.

See: Σπυρίδων Μαρινάτος, Οι Νιοβίδαι της Ινάτου. Αρχαιολογική εφημερίς: περιοδικόν της εν Αθήναις Αρχαιολογικής Εταιρείας. T. 73 (1934-1935), σ. 1-17.

(Spyridon Marinatos, The Niobids of Itanos. Archaiologike Ephemeris, periodical of the Archaeological Society at Athens. Volume 73, 1934-1935, pages 1-17.)

More recently Jane E. Francis, Associate Professor at Concordia University, Montreal, delivered a conference paper on the statues in 2016: The Inatos Niobids: a re-assessment. Unfortunately, as far as I know, it has not yet been published.

Abstract of the paper: 12th International Congress of Cretan Studies, Heraklion, 21 - 25 September 2016, Program and abstracts (PDF), page 114. Society of Cretan Historical Studies, 2016.

19. Pankration - a dangerous sport

Pausanias related the story of the death of Arrhachion (Ἀρραχίων) during a pankration match at the 54th Olympic Games (564 BC). He was awarded the victory posthumously, and his Archaic statue (probably a kouros) was still standing in the agora of his home town Phigalia (Φιγαλία), in Arcadia, Peloponnese, when Pausanias visited 700 years later.

"The Phigalians have on their market-place a statue of the pancratiast Arrhachion; it is archaic, especially in its posture. The feet are close together, and the arms hang down by the side as far as the hips. The statue is made of stone, and it is said that an inscription was written upon it. This has disappeared with time, but Arrhachion won two Olympic victories at Festivals before the fifty-fourth, while at this Festival he won one due partly to the fairness of the Umpires and partly to his own manhood.

For when he was contending for the wild olive with the last remaining competitor, whoever he was, the latter got a grip first, and held Arrhachion, hugging him with his legs, and at the same time he squeezed his neck with his hands. Arrhachion dislocated his opponent's toe, but expired owing to suffocation; but he who suffocated Arrhachion was forced to give in at the same time because of the pain in his toe. The Eleans crowned and proclaimed victor the corpse of Arrhachion."

20. The Temple of Aphaia on Aegina

The Temple of Aphaia (Ναός Αφαίας), at the northeast of the island of Aegina in the Saronic Gulf, was designed by Iktinos and built around 450-400 BC to replace an earlier temple, built around 570 BC and destroyed by fire circa 510 BC. The remains of the Doric temple, on a hill with a view over the gulf to the coast of Attica, are still impressive. It was dedicated to the mother-goddess Aphaia (Ἀφαία), although Cockerell and his contemporaries believed it to be the "Temple of Jupiter Panhellenius", and later it was thought to be a temple of Athena.

In April 1811 Cockerell, along John Foster, Baron Carl Haller von Hallerstein, Baron Otto Magnus von Stackelberg, Jakob Linckh and others, discovered and removed the fallen pedimental sculptures from the temple, much to the anger of local people, and they were shipped to Rome. Thanks to Hallerstein's relationship with Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, they were able to sell him the sculptures the next year. They are now in the Glyptothek, Munich.

In July 1811 Cockerell and his companions also excavated the ruins of the Temple of Apollo Epikourios at Bassai in the Peloponnese. They returned in 1812 with a larger group of excavators and removed the sculptured reliefs from the temple's frieze, which were shipped to Zante (Zakynthos) and sold to the British Museum in 1813.

21. The kneeling Niobid

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