2022.286: Attis Playing Pan Pipes

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2022.286

Title

Attis Playing Pan Pipes

Classification

Sculpture

Work Type

sculpture, statuette

Date

3rd century BCE

Period

Hellenistic period

Culture

Greek

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/377057

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Terracotta

Technique

Mold-made

Dimensions

H. 15.2 × W. 6.4 × D. 5.1 cm (6 × 2 1/2 × 2 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin [1], Paris, (by 1890-1911), sold; to William A. Clark [2], New York, (by 1911-1925), bequest; to Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., (1926-2018) [3], transferred; to American University Museum, Washington, D.C., (2018-2021), sold; [through Sands of Time, Washington, D.C.]; to Harvard Art Museums, 2022.

1. Louis-Joseph-Raphaël Collin (1850-1916)
2. William Andrews Clark (1839-1925)
3. Following the closure of the Corcoran Gallery in 2014, its collections were physically transferred to the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); the Corcoran Board of Trustees retained ownership until the collections were officially transferred to and accessioned into other museums’ collections (in 2018, in this case).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Kelekian Fund

Accession Year

2022

Object Number

2022.286

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This small terracotta sculpture of a male youth playing pan pipes depicts the Greek and Roman mythological figure of Attis. Shown as an “eastern” shepherd, the youth sits on a rock. Wearing leggings, a cloak, and a Phrygian cap, he plays the pan pipes (syrinx). A dog sits by his right leg. This figure’s attire—leggings and a Phrygian cap—mark him as a foreigner. Indeed, Attis, the mythological character, is from Phrygia, a region in modern-day Turkey. This is a typical representation of Attis.

The hollow figurine is largely complete, but losses include the tip of the Phrygian cap and the bottom back edges (including the lower part of the dog’s body). The back of the figure is not modeled.

Commentary

In Greek and Roman cult and myth, Attis was the consort of the goddess Kybele (also spelled Cybele), the Graeco-Roman conception of the Anatolian mother goddess, whose cult gained traction in Greece in the 6th century BCE and arrived in Rome in the 3rd century BCE. The figure of Attis did not clearly exist in the original Anatolian version of the cult.

In Graeco-Roman mythological narratives and, specifically, in Latin poetry (e.g., Ovid, Metamorphoses 10.99-105 and Fasti 4.221-224; Catullus 63), Attis was a lover of Kybele: unfaithful to her, she drove him mad, and he consequently castrated himself; he then died, and Kybele resurrected him as her consort. This story formed the legendary basis for the priesthood of the cult of Kybele: the priests, the galli, were eunuchs and dressed in the “Phrygian” outfit of Attis. Textual sources record negative Roman attitudes toward these priests, which crystallize around their deviations from normative Roman notions of masculinity.

Publication History

• Corcoran Gallery of Art, ed., Illustrated handbook of the W. A. Clark collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC, 1928), p. 108, no. 2584
• Corcoran Gallery of Art, ed., Illustrated handbook of the W.A. Clark Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC, 1932), p.110, no. 2584

Verification Level