Sarcophagus Panel Reduction Of Persephone Analysis

The Sarcophagus Panel Depicting the Abduction of Persephone was created by an anonymous Ionian sculptor around 190/200 CE. The Sarcophagus Panel Depicting the Abduction of Persephone is a high relief sculpture that shows Hades (god of the underworld) abducting Demeter’s (the harvest goddess) very young daughter Persephone so that he can marry the young girl. This relief sculpture was inspired by the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, which tells the story of Hades kidnapping Persephone. This work of art is a relief sculpture that was created out of marble since marble was a common medium that the ancient Greeks and Romans would use in sculptures. The sculpture itself is around a meter and a half tall and six meters wide. The Sarcophagus Panel Depicting …show more content…
The drapes on the goddess in this relief sculpture further the emotions of fear and desperation. For instance, the way Iris (messenger of the gods who can be seen in the background of the sculpture next to Demeter) waves her drapes and the way her drapes are depicted in the relief sculpture. Iris is presented frantically waving her drapes at three goddesses (Aphrodite, Artemis, and Athena) in desperation to stop Hades from abducting Persephone. The artist is able to show movement on the drapes that Iris is waving through the use of shade. Curved lines are used to represent the creases in her drapes and shade is used in the creases so that each crease has a darker tone, which ultimately contributes to the artist’s goal of showing movement. The composition of the three goddesses in the panel are all overlapping each other to show movement as they frantically search for Hades. When looking at the drapes of Demeter, Artemis, Aphrodite, and Athena, they all follow the wet drapery method that has been used since the Classical Period in Greece. The artist is able to show the wet drapery method by making the drapes of the figures in low relief so that their legs are present. However, when analyzing Iris, she is not shown in the wet drapery method because the artist wanted to show movement. The artist is able to accomplish this by sculpting the drapes of Iris to seem as if they are flowing in …show more content…
The use of movement on the figures and the emotions in their eyes all furthered the sensations that the artist wanted the viewer to experience. At the end of the day, one that views this will walk away feeling cold like the winters that Persephone