Unknown
Roman

Three Dancing Nymphs, 1st c. CE
marble, Pentelic
28 3/4 × 35 1/2 × 3 in.

SBMA, Gift of Frank Perls
1952.27

RESEARCH PAPER

Gracing the presence of Ludington Court, high above our heads, three nymphs dance in celebration of life. This relief, Three Dancing Nymphs, is a Roman copy of a Greek original of the 4th cent. BCE, possibly by Praxiteles, but more likely by one of his pupils. The original is believed to have been lost, but many similar reliefs have been found. Its rather opaque appearance, medium-fine grain, streaky grayish discolorations are recognizable characteristics of Pentelic marble, quarried near Athens.

The artist shows his able handling of the techniques of relief carving. Although connected, the figures stand out singly against a plain background as they dance in line to the left. A deep groove outlines the figures to accentuate their contours. The nymph at far left is the leader of group. Her head is in profile, hair bound up tightly. The second nymph dancer tilts her head slightly toward the viewer in a three-quarter view. Her hair, partially confined by a scarf, frames her face in soft waves and flows down her back in a mass of curls. The third nymph looks directly outward. Her face is framed by her garment which is pulled up to cover her hair. Each girl grasps the himation, or shawl, of the girl in front of her in a gesture similar to a chain dance of today.

The relief is carved on a rectangular format bisected by the three strong verticals made by the dancers' bodies. The diagonal lines of their arms and legs enhance the sense of movement in their dance. There is also an implied horizontal line, which is the strongest, because the [viewer's] eye follows the eyes of the nymphs in the direction they are moving, from right to left. Care is taken in the crossing of lines as each dancer holds onto the one in front of her, accentuating their union. One can sense the life within each and the fluidity and grace of their movements by the softness of their garments, the light linen chitons and the gentle handling of their shawls or himatia draped around their shoulders and arms.

This relief belongs to a series of replicas showing the same three dancers and agreeing closely in their details. All must be reproductions of a famous lost original dating back to the 4th cent. BCE. The original and its exact purpose is not entirely known but has been attributed to a relief scene decorating the base of a statue of Dionysis in the god’s sanctuary in Athens. In the reconstructed scene, the messenger god, Hermes, is shown carrying the infant Dionysis, newborn from the hip of Zeus, to the nymphs who would rear him secretly in the mountain wilderness of Nyssa. The three nymphs dance in celebration of the harmonious and beneficent nature of their new charge.

Although we cannot know the true situation of the original, SBMA’s relief was created by a Roman artisan to serve as a decorative wall panel. The slightly inward sloping sides show that the relief plaque was not part of a continuous frieze but a thing unto itself. Such pieces were often used to adorn the garden walls of elegant Roman villas throughout the Empire. We can assume it was meant to be placed high above eye level, by the direction and treatment of the foreshortening of the figures and the undercutting of the stone.

Replicas such as this one follow the original so closely in all their main features that a precise dating is difficult. However, the lush, but subtle carving of the drapery, the soft, small-boned faces, and the stylized movement suggests the artistic trends of the Claudian period, 2nd quarter of the 1st cent CE. It was discovered somewhere between Tripoli and Leptis Magna in modern Libya around 1896-97. It was acquired somewhere in North Africa eventually by an Englishman, H. Swainson Cowper, who kept it in his home in England and exhibited it at Cambridge in 1911. From England the relief went to the German Archaeological Institute in Rome. By the time the relief came to SBMA as a gift from Frank Perls in 1952, all other information about its provenance had been lost.

Whatever its history, wherever it has been, the beauty of this relief, almost 2000 years old now graces Ludington Court and the dancing nymphs invite us to join them in a celebration of life.

Prepared for Docent Council by Michelle Monarch, April 1991
Edited for Docent website by Gay Collins, October 200

COMMENTS

Original bibliography has been lost.