1. General Features of Sculpture in Ionia

There is little available information about the Hellenistic sculpture in Ionia. Little is also known about the names of the artists, their most important works, their descent and the cities where they worked. Several studies have been conducted on Hellenistic sculpture so that the works can be chronologically classified and attributed to sculptors, but they deal mainly with the region of Pergamon and places outside Asia Minor like Attica and Alexandria. In addition, according to written sources and the small number of signatures appearing in reliefs and pedestals or supports of statues, several sculptors worked far from their birthplace. Consequently, lots of works found in Ionic sites may have been created by sculptors of different origin or vice versa. Due to these problems the identification of the particular stylistic characteristics of the local Ionic schools of sculpture is not always possible.

Because of the small number of works it is difficult to follow the development stages of Hellenistic sculpture. The main features of the preserved Early Hellenistic fully sculptured works from Ionia are frontality and the analytically arranged folds of the clothes. On the other hand, in the Late Hellenistic period there was often a tendency towards underlining the third dimension of the figures represented in the statues through turning the torso and showing the limbs as if moving, as it happens with the rest of Hellenistic works.

The statues and architectural sculptures of Ionia dated to the 3^rd c. BC are few and highly dependent on the works of the late 4^th c. BC, as it happens with the architectural sculptures of Artemisium, Ephesus (second half of 4^th c. BC). Among the most typical examples are the headless statue in the Mausoleum of Belevi and the relief figures in the altar at the sanctuary of Athena in Priene, where the folds of the clothes are in the form of the previous century.

The statues dated to the first half of the 3^rd c. BC include some of the most important works of the Hellenistic period in Ionia. There are few 3^rd c. BC reliefs, but their production increased in the following century, as regards both architectural, such as those in the temples of Priene and Miletus, and funerary works.

The character of sculpture in Ionia started to change in the 2^nd c. BC, mainly with respect to the tendency towards the detailed and free analysis of the folds of the clothes, which contrast with the austere and structured folds of the school of Pergamon. The only conclusion freely resulting as regards the influence the sculpture of Ionia had on neighbouring regions is that Samos is influenced by the art workshops of the Asia Minor cities of Ionia, mainly Ephesus, while the influence may be detected in some of the works found in Delos as well.

Unfortunately, there are few works found in the great urban and artistic centres of Ionia, such as Miletus and Ephesus, while a large number of finds excavated in other areas have not been published yet. The knowledge of the Teos sculpture comes almost exclusively from the relief decoration of the Ionic order temple of Dionysus. As for Colophon, there is little evidence, while isolated works, mainly 2^nd c. BC female statues, were found in Erythrae and Notium.

2. Statues

Τhe most important fully sculptured Ionic works of the late 4^th c. BC have been preserved in fragments. They include a statuette from Priene, attributed to Alexander the Great, and two statues of charioteers found at Artemisium, Ephesus, and at the sanctuary of Demeter in Priene.¹ Τhe latter were offered to the two gods and, according to Linfert, they probably were manufactured by the same art workshop.²

A headless female statue wearing a chiton and a himation, which also covers the upper part of the head, found at the theatre of Miletus was made in subsequent years.³ It is of the same type as another headless statue, which portrayed Episteme and adorned, in second use, the Library of Celsus in Ephesus. They were made in the same period (290-280 BC), while the type is also repeated in two Roman copies.

The chronological order is followed by the four Caryatids of the theatre of Miletus (circa 275 BC), reused in the Imperial period.⁴ They are important finds, as they are archaistic figures, although they are stylistically associated with their contemporary works. Not all researchers agree with this view, as many of them believe that the Caryatids should be dated to the Roman Imperial period, when the archaistic style was at its peak.

Three contemporary works, the headless statue of Demeter, or possibly of her priestess Nikeso, found in Demeter’s sanctuary at Priene, and two female heads found in the same location (first half of the 3^rd c. BC) are less accurately dated.⁵ Τhe first statue, with the restrained pose, is one of the few examples of the Hellenistic period in which the difference between the texture of the thin chiton and the stiff himation is realistically rendered. Then comes the headless statue with the eastern dress, found at the Mausoleum of Belevi, to the north of Ephesus, which is dated possibly shortly after the mid-3^rd c. BC.⁶ It is yet another restrained work, just like the statue of Nikeso, with the same tendency towards analysing the folds, which now follow the anatomy of the torso and the limbs, mainly in the bundle of the thin folds above the girdle. Similar stylistic features may also be found in other statues, mainly female, created in 3^rd c. Ionia, such as the group of Torbali, Ephesus, and the statues of Vathy and Pythagorion, Samos, manufactured by workshops of the coastal Asia Minor.⁷

One of the least known works from Ionia, the headless sitting statue of a philosopher, is also dated to the 3^rd c. BC.⁸ It has a stout and flaccid body, which, although headless, indicates an elderly man. The absence of a chiton and the existence of only one himation covering the legs and leaving the body and the arms uncovered, as well as the fleshy body are features appearing in several statues of Hellenistic philosophers. According to a large number of researchers, the above suggest a person indifferent to worldly interests.

A smaller number of 2^nd and 1^st c. BC works have survived. One of the few preserved votive groups of statues of the Hellenistic period is the one found at Apollo’s Doric temple in Claros.⁹ It is most likely that they were taken to the temple of the Early Hellenistic period several centuries later, in the Imperial period, when the temple was reconstructed. Τhe statues, preserved in fragments, are subsequent to the temple and are dated by Linfert to the first half of the 2^nd c. BC. Apollo was sitting and wearing a himation, which covered his left shoulder. He was surrounded by the standing statues of his mother, Leto, wearing a chiton and a himation, and his sister, Artemis, wearing a small chiton fastened under the breasts.

The four female statues found in the southern agora of Miletus and dated to the 180s BC make a major contribution to the knowledge of the Milesian sculpture.¹⁰ Τhe statues, due to their common stylistic features, must have been created by the same workshop and possibly belonged to a group of statues erected in the agora.

The next works are two female statues found in Erythrae (circa 160 BC) and Notium (circa 100 BC) as well as the statues of a man wearing a himation, made by Apollonides of Ephesus, and the so-called Borghese warrior, made by Agasias of Ephesus; both are contemporary with the statue of Notium.¹¹

3. Αrchitectural Reliefs

Τhe earliest architectural reliefs of the Hellenistic period in Ionia are the relief representations that used to adorn possibly the lowest drum of 36 out of a total of 127 columns of the temple of Artemis in Ephesus and the square bases found in the peristasis of the building (second half of the 4^th c. BC).¹² The relief decoration of the columns includes scenes from the Gigantomachy, the Centauromachy, scenes of Herakles’ life and scenes related to the cult of the goddess, such as processions and ritual dances.

The coffers of the temple of Athena in Priene were made at a later stage (late 4^th c. BC). According to the few fragments preserved so far, the themes must have included mythological scenes (Gigantomachy, with the participation of Amazons, and a female deity, possibly Cybele on a lion).

The earliest architectural reliefs of the 3^rd c. BC are the panels of the Mausoleum of Belevi. A large number of fragments belonging to the 24 coffers of the monument’s pteroma have been preserved. As it happens in the relief decoration of the columns at Artemisium, Ephesus, the mythological themes coexist with scenes of daily life. The northern side included scenes of athletic games, while the other three sides depicted scenes from the Centauromachy, where most of the Lapiths are dressed like soldiers.

The altar of Athena’s sanctuary in Priene is dated to the late 3^rd or the first quarter of the 2^nd c. BC. It was adorned with isolated relief figures on a base, in the intervals formed between semi-columns.¹³ Τhere are few fragments of figures, mainly female, while, according to Linfert’s suggestion, Apollo and the nine Muses must have been depicted on the longest, eastern side of the altar.

The historic relief of Ephesus in Vienna, made in the late 3^rd or early 2^nd c. BC, depicts the conflict between Greeks and Galatians.¹⁴ There is no evidence about the kind of monument it adorned, as it was excavated illegally. It must be earlier than the known relief frieze on the pedestal of the Delphi portrait statue representing the Roman general Aemilius Paulus (168 BC), which portrays scenes from the Battle of Pydna. The frieze of the Ionic temple of Dionysus in Teos, a 2^nd c. BC building reconstructed following an earthquake in the Early Imperial period, is also important.¹⁵ Only 1/5 of its length has survived, while the figures are 0.60 m tall in average. The short frieze of the temple, created by the most renowned architect of the time, Hermogenes, is adorned with only one theme, Maenads and Centaurs depicted as members of the Dionysiac troupe dancing and playing various musical instruments. The Centaurs depart from the iconography of the Classical period, where they are usually represented in the battlefield with their Thessalian neighbours, the Lapiths, and belong to Dionysus’ followers. The figures are stylistically connected with those of the earlier panels of the Mausoleum of Belevi, although they are rendered as miniatures.