Sculpture
This fragment of one of the Ionic marble columns of the Temple of Artemis in Sardis, Asia Minor (its upper and lower parts are exposed and is 3.61 meters high), impresses with its large size (the external columns of the temple were 17.73 meters high m., while the internal ones 17.13m.)
This is a typical example of the Early Hellenistic Period, so the exaggeration in the sculptural decoration is especially highlighted, in contrast to the balance of the classical shapes.
The column rests on a base with relief decoration. The proportions of the trunk are slender, in contrast to the tall slender columns of the classical era.
The ornate capital is surmounted by an abacus decorated with an Ionic wave. The well-designed scrolls are also joined together by an Ionic wave, the oval ornaments of which, however, have been transformed into hymns surrounded by acanthus shoots.
Sardis was a glorious city in Asia Minor, built near the river Paktolos, a short distance from the Aegean Sea, capital of Lydia, the homeland of Croesus. The Hermos was a tributary of Paktolos and in ancient times it flowed through the city of Sardis. Pactolos was gold-bearing, full of gold nuggets, and people believed that this was because Midas had been washed into its waters. His name has remained proverbial even in our time, so when we speak of paktolos, we mean not the river, but an abundance of money.
In the Hellenistic times, brilliant buildings began to be built in Sardis, with the most important of all the Ionic temple of the goddess Artemis.
The temple was one of the seven largest temples of the ancient Greek world. It belongs to the pseudo-dipterous type (that is, the inner colonnade has been omitted) while the nave is divided into two rooms, with an entrance from the east and the west respectively).
As with the other two Artemisia of Asia Minor (the great archaic temple of Ephesus and the temple of Hermogenes of Artemis Leufophryni in Magnesia Maiander), the main facade was to the west.
The altar that has survived to this day is located in front of the western entrance and at its core a Lydian construction of 5th B.C. h. The area was considered sacred to the goddess and the altar bears witness to this. In its current form, the building has undergone two major alterations in relation to its original design: firstly, the nave was originally single with an entrance from the west and secondly, the original design must have been for a double temple (with two rows of columns).
photo https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/252453
