Unknown
Greek
Head of a Youth Wearing a Phrygian Cap, 5th c. BCE late or 4th c. BCE early
marble
8 1/2"
SBMA, Bequest of Wright S. Ludington
1993.1.88
Unknown
Greek
Head of a Youth Wearing a Phrygian Cap, 5th c. BCE late or 4th c. BCE early
marble
8 1/2"
SBMA, Bequest of Wright S. Ludington
1993.1.88
Historical Notes;
The state of Phrygia in Asia Minor (now Northern Turkey) evoled from tribal groups in Asia Minor who formed a small state in the 1200’s BCE, its capital the City of Gordium.
Legends grew around the city’s Temple to Zeus, which consecrated an ancient tangled knot of ropes, said to protect the country and known as the Gordian Knot. Surviving through leaders like the infamos King Midas, Phrygia becaame part of the Persian Empire, until conquqered in the 4th c BCE by Alexander the Great, who is said to have severed the Gordian Knot with his sword.
Our “Head of a Youth Wearing a Phrygian Cap” commemorates another famos legend which continued into the 19th c in Europe. The peaked cap worn by our marble head, the peak folded over, was worn by emancipated Phrygian slaves in Greece and was known as the Liberty Cap in 4th c BCE Athens and was adopted throughout Euorope, prominantly during the Frendh Revolution, as a symbol of Freedom.
posted by Ricki Morse.