3-003-867 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Remains of supposed statue of Mausolus, 1861. '...a noble statue nearly perfect, though consisting of upwards of fifty fragments, and supposed to be that of King Mausolus. This figure is nearly 10 ft. high, is draped in a tunic and himation, and stands in a quiescent, dignified attitude...The face is slightly bearded, the features massive and finely formed, and the expression full of majesty, intelligence, and thought. The drapery is admiralty composed, and executed in the highest style of the best period of Greek art. The fragments of this statue were found in an excavation beyond the northern boundary of the tomb...we have in it probably the most ancient example of Greek portrait statuary yet discovered...[It is one of several] sculptured remains, the result of the excavations conducted by Mr. C. T. Newton, when Vice-Consul at Mitylene, on the site and in the neighbourhood of the mausoleum at Halicarnassus, now known by the Turkish name of Budrum, in Asia Minor. These works are of the date of the middle of the fourth century [BCE]...their interest and value to the connoisseur and the student of art cannot be overrated, being superior to that of many of the collections which now fill the spacious avenues of the British Museum'. From "Illustrated London News", 1861.