Niobe Mask - Item #819
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17 Inches High x 10 Inches Wide
This mask is from the sculpture of Niobe and her younger daughter from the Niobid Group. A Roman copy of a Hellenistic Greek original, the marble Niobid Group consists of a series of figures. The sculptor may have been Skopas or Praxiteles.
The Niobid Group was discovered in the Tomassini vineyard in Rome in 1583 and is now housed in the dedicated Niobe Room in the Uffizi Galleries. Here, they are displayed individually on pedestals, arranged around the room along the walls. As for their original orientation, it is theorized that they would have been situated in a nymphaeum in one of the emperor’s parks in which their placement would have followed the structure’s semicircular shape, and the sculpture of Niobe and her daughter would have been placed at the center. For almost two centuries starting in 1584, the group was situated in the Villa Medici on the Pincian Hill after being purchased by Ferdinando de’ Medici. Another copy of the Niobid Group was discovered in the area of Muri dei Francesi in Ciampino in 2012. Dated to the end of the 1st century BCE and the 2nd century CE, these sculptures are housed in the Sanctuary of Hercules Victor in Tivoli. Numerous other copies of individual figures and pieces have been found as well, and some have replaced or restored statues in other displays, including the Uffizi group.
The sculpture group represents the Greek tragedy of the murder of Niobe’s children. According to Homer’s Iliad, Niobe – the wife of Amphion, the king of Thebes – boasted of her large family of 12 children to the Titan Leto (or Latona), who had two children, Apollo and Artemis. Leto ordered them to kill Niobe’s children as punishment for her hubris. The scene depicts the children being attacked by arrows and Niobe watching in despair. One daughter is kneeling by her mother, grasping her at the waist, while Niobe tries to shield her from the onslaught. Niobe’s head is turned to the right and up towards the sky, terrified and pleading. Later, she was turned into a rock on Mount Sipylus (in modern-day Turkey), and she is still seen crying when the snow melts.
Artist: Unknown, after Skopas or Praxiteles
Museum: Uffizi Galleries, Florence, Italy
Origin: Tomassini vineyard near Basilica of St. John Lateran, Rome
Time Period: Ancient Greek - Hellenistic, end of 4th century B.C.E./Ancient Roman - Imperial, first half of 2nd century C.E.
1911 Catalog ID # - 13452
Sources:
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Niobe." Encyclopædia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Niobe-Greek-mythology.
"Niobe and daughter from the Niobid Group." Cornell University Library Digital Collections, https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:946117.
"Niobid Group (Sculpture)." Tufts University: Perseus Digital Library, Gregory R. Crane (editor-in-chief), http://data.perseus.org/artifacts/sculpture/Niobid+Group.
Paolucci, Fabrizio. "Niobe with her younger daughter." Uffizi Galleries, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/niobe-with-her-younger-daughter.
Paolucci, Fabrizio, Lucilla D'Alessandro, and Elena Rosangela Dellù. "Niobe and her children in the mirror: The sculptural complex from the Villæ of Tivoli at the Uffizi" (online exhibition). Uffizi Galleries, https://www.uffizi.it/en/online-exhibitions/niobids-in-the-mirror#0.
Paolucci, Fabrizio, and Patrizia Naldini. "Niobe room." Uffizi Galleries, https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/niobe-room.
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