Archaeology: “Arige of Delphi” reveals its last secrets

When asked about itDelphi’s chariotA large bronze statue representing a carriage by Sophie Descamps, Honorary General Curator of Heritage at the Louvre Museum, has this categorical proposition: “This is one of the Mona Lisas of Greece. » A kind of metal equivalent Venus of Milo. and like Mona Lisa in parisWheelchair The Delphi museum is too crowded with tourists to give him a room. However, even if it is one of the most photographed sculptures in the world, even if its discovery, which dates back to the spring of 1896, dates back more than a century, in a long tunic and with a magnetic gaze, this wheel is kept before that. Present many mysteries about its origin. Secrets that have just been revealed at a symposium held in Athens on Thursday from 1.^Eh on Saturday, December 3, during which the results of an unprecedented scientific training program were revealed.

It was Delphi’s chariot Probably the victim of the landslide in BC. During the great earthquake of 373 AD. J.-C., which also caused a tsunami

in ancient greece “There were thousands of statues in public squares, we know this from textual sources or from the stone pedestals on which they stood., Sophie Decamps explains. But these works have essentially disappeared. » Many bronze, copper and tin alloys are reworked. A part plundered by the Romans sunk on a voyage to Italy. Finally, others were buried during cataclysms such asDelphi’s chariot, probably a victim of a landslide in BC. During the great earthquake of 373 AD. which also caused a tsunami. The wheeler found itself underground with the wreckage of its quadriga, as well as the pieces of the four horses that pulled it.

In 1896, a mysterious child’s arm was also discovered, possibly the base of a small groom and statue. Its inscriptions made it possible to date the work, which was created to celebrate the victory of the charioteer of Polysalos, prince of Gela in Sicily, during the Pythian games held at Delphi. “Auriga” group should be created in BC. In the years 470-466. J.-C.– says Sophie Decamps. Thanks to this we have a testimony of what the Greek bronzesmiths knew how to do at that time. » V. of this beginning^e A century BC saw real technical maturation, both in the art of lost wax casting and in the art of welding borrowed from the Egyptians. Because the statue, likeWheelchair is a rather incredible assembly, the welding of which is, for the most part, invisible to the naked eye, prompting Sophie DeCamp to say that “Its author was a virtuoso, it’s amazing”.