Finding the Originals: A Study of the Roman Copies of the Tyrannicides and the Amazon Group

• Main Author: Rader, Courtney Ann
• Other Authors: Walsh, Justin St. P.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2010
• Subjects: Art
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04272010-171250/

Very few bronze original Greek sculptures from the fifth-century BCE are extant today. It is through marble Roman copies that lost Greek originals are studied today. Along with the Roman copies, other media and ancient literary sources can be used to study Greek sculpture. My goal for this thesis is to study the previous scholarship and Roman copies of the Tyrannicides and the Amazon Group. When studying copies, scholars must first answer: Is it a copy? Of what is it a copy? If it is a copy, what can the copy tell about the Greek artist? To better answer these questions, I will look to connoisseurship as a possible solution. Ancient literature and other media also present new context in which to understand the lost originals. I will illustrate how all the sources mentioned above aid in the understanding of original Greek sculpture, particularly the Tyrannicides and Amazon Group.