1. Introduction

Caria was one of the most important centers of sculpture production in Asia Minor during the Archaic period. The sculpture of Caria is studied along with that of Doris, the small region in the Ceramic Gulf on the south of the Carian peninsula, which was settled by Dorians.

The evidence for the study of the archaic sculpture from Doris and Caria comes in the form of works made of marble (architectural sculptures, reliefs, and free-standing sculptures) and clay. Regarding its style, diversity rather than a unified character can be ascertained. The preserved works are influenced by models from Ionia and the islands. On the one hand, there is a delicate rendering of the figures, accuracy and clarity in the synthesis of the individual features, while on the other hand there are fluid figures, with plump facial features and fleshy bodies. The major production centers were Cnidus and Halicarnassus.

2. Cnidus

2.1. Cnidian Treasury in Delphi

The Cnidians dedicated to the Delphic sanctuary in 550-540 BC a Treasure made of Parian marble, which represents, perhaps for the first time in the history of Greek architecture, two symmetrical caryatids between the antae, replacing the columns of the portico. This was an Eastern influence. The slim and delicate, headless and fragmentary caryatids, also made of Parian marble, project their right and left legs alternatively. They are wearing a sidelong himation above the thin belted chiton, which they are raising with one hand. They were supposed to be placed on a high rectangular pedestal and support a tall, cylindrical block of marble in between their heads and the capitals, decorated with relief depictions. The caryatids of the Cnidian Treasury, as far as the representation of the body, the movement, and the folds are concerned, seem to imitate the models of the laterkorai of the Parian workshop, which in turn adopted the Caryatids motif for the more recent Treasury of the Siphnians, also at Delphi. Nevertheless, the local Doric style is evident in the precise and clear characterization of the folds, which is reminiscent of the plasticity of arterfacts made of copper.

Pediment figures of intertwined animals have been hypothetically linked to the Cnidian Treasury.¹ In older days, the same Treasury was said to have included a caryatid’s head, also made of Parian marble, which supported a tall cylindrical block with a relief representation of Apollo playing the guitar between two symmetrical groups of four figures (circa 530 BC).² This portrayal, however, has been questioned by contemporary research based on valid arguments, while some scholars, who have dated the caryatids to the 6^th century BC, do not even accept the fact that the headless korai belonged to the Cnidian Treasury.³

In addition, a marble lion of the late 6^th century BC also comes from Cnidus.⁴ This lion, ready to jump high with its slender dog-like body, with its strained muscles and its strenuously outlined limbs, is singled out from the equivalently voluminous and languidly sprawling Ionian lions.

2.2. Other works from Cnidus

From Cnidus alco come an unfinished kore⁵, an early bronze statuette of a naked woman⁶ and a mirror stand in the shape of a kore with a stout, round face and prominent cheekbones. As far as her physique and the rendering of the folds goes, it is very similar to the caryatids of the Cnidian Treasury at Delphi.⁷ A woman’s head in real size, made of clay, with full characteristics and small lentil-shaped eyes possibly represents the goddess Demeter.⁸ In 1987 a marble statuette of a seated man, which was broken in many pieces, was discovered in Cnidus and has been dated to around 500 BC.⁹ It illustrates a figure seating on a diphros and wearing a chiton and a himation. The right side of the seat is decorated with a relief of a dog, while on the left side there is a rooster and an incised inscription in the Cnidian alphabet, bearing the signature of the sculptor Myrton. The piece of art reminds of equivalent seated figures from the Acropolis of Athens, the so called ‘Scribes’. However, it is the only well-known fully-sculptured relief, on which a dog and a rooster are depicted together. These symbols lead us to the conclusion that it represents the funerary statue of a prominent citizen of Cnidus, possibly a doctor, who would be linked to the Medical School of Cnidus, already famous since the Archaic period.

Despite the fact that Myrton is unknown, he must have been one of the most important sculptors of his time. He was also probably the only Carian sculptor whose name is known to us. On a tomb relief in the shape of a small temple, a bearded man, dressed in a chiton and a himation, is seated on a stool (diphros) with lion-legs, and he is pensively supporting his chin and is holding a cane in his other hand.¹⁰ This figure has been identified with a physician, based on the depiction of two suction cups in the relief’s background. Facing him there is a naked servant standing, holding a suction cup in his lowered left hand and reading to his master from a diptych tablet that he is holding in his slightly raised right hand. This relief, which is found today at the Museum of Basileia, was possibly created in Cnidus and presents, though in a more advanced manner, the artistic style of the tomb stele from Physkos. The vivid representation of the garment and the fingers of the right hand are traits of a manneristic artistic style that was prevalent towards the end of the Archaic Age, and point to the possibility of the relief dating to around 490 BC. The rich production of Cnidus in clay figurines and limestone spanned from the end of the 7^th century until the middle of the 6^th century BC, and it spread to almost the entire Eastern Mediterranean, but was mostly found in the shrines of Samos, Rhodes, Naucratis and Cnidus. It comprised mostly clay clusters of warriors on a chariot, bulls and rams which were served for offerings, as well as statues of kouroi, symposiasts, donors and seated deities made of limestone, bearing a close relation with the equivalent Cypriot works. The most renowned figurine from Cnidus is a small limestone kouros, holding a musical instrument (lyre / guitar).¹¹

3. Halicarnassus

The slender lion that is nowadays standing in front of the castle of Halicarnassus is closely linked to the example from Cnidus.¹² A similar lion, as far as its physical characteristics is concerned, and with a serene posture decorated the capital of an Ionian column on the tomb of Micos.¹³ Two other lions, one of which is built in the wall of the English tower of the castle of Halicarnassus,¹⁴ and the other is found in the same castle’s courtyard,¹⁵ appear heavy and stoutly manufactured.

A kouros wearing a himation is a local, but not so successful variation of the Milesian models and dates to around 530 BC.¹⁶ Simply rendered are also the heads of a sphinx¹⁷ and a kouros,¹⁸ with full, round faces and deeply set eyes. Among the clay figurines from Halicarnassus, the female ones are more numerous.¹⁹

4. Ceramos – Myndos – Iasos – Kaunos – Mylasa – Theagela – Aspendus

The famous natural-sized marble head of a kouros from Ceramos, dated to around 540 BC, has greatly influenced the Samian models.²⁰ As opposed to his models, however, the Carian sculptor prefers marked contrasts in the rendering of a full face, which derive from the additional composition of its different parts (hair, forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, cheekbones). Moreover, four torsos of kouroi, with full, protruding buttocks, were modelled on Eastern Greek archetypes.²¹

The fragments of kouroi from Myndos (550-530 BC),²² Iasos,²³Caunus (550-530 BC)²⁴ and Mylasa (circa 530 BC)²⁵ are identical. To this group belong two badly preserved heads of kouroi.²⁶ A frieze slab representing a chariot race from Iasos²⁷ is an actual repetition of a later frieze depicting a chariot race from Myous. A kore from Theagela holding a bird is a provincial variation of Milesian models,²⁸ while local clay figurines of eastern Greek type have been found in a repository of votive offerings.²⁹ Finally, in Aspendus a sprawling lion with a compact body has been found.³⁰

5. Physkos (Marmaris)

From a tomb façade in Marmaris comes the older, well-known eastern Greek tomb stele with a depiction of a dog that accompanies his master, which dates to around 500 BC.³¹ The sculptor borrowed the motive of a standing man leaning on his cane, in whose direction a dog is leaping, from Attic funeral art. Yet, he remodelled it according to the characteristic local artistic style and thus created a type of funerary relief which, over the following years engendered a particularly strong influence on the Greek East. In contrast with the naked men found on Attic stelae, this dead man is wrapped in a himation worn diagonally, according to Eastern-Greek customs. The folds and the physical characteristics are represented in their linearity on a low relief. The dead man’s form is very similar to that of the chiton-wearing kouros from Halicarnassus. Bronze seals of shields depicting animals and battle scenes were found within a shrine at Marmaris.³²

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