Marble statue of a wounded Amazon

Ancient Roman This Roman marble copy, also called the Lansdowne Amazon, reproduces a Greek bronze original from around 450-425 BCE. The ancient writer Pliny described a famous competition among five sculptors (including Phidias, Polykleitos, and Kresilas) to create Amazon statues for the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus. This type is attributed to either Polykleitos or Kresilas.

The figure is a wounded warrior who has lost her weapons. She bleeds from a wound under her right breast, but her face shows no sign of pain, reflecting the Greek ideal of dignified composure in suffering. Her chiton is unfastened at one shoulder, belted at the waist with a makeshift piece of horse bridle. She rests her right arm on her head in a gesture associated with sleep or death.

The statue stands over 2 meters tall. John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1932. It passed through the Borghese Collection and Lansdowne House before reaching New York.