Marble
Gigen (Oescus), Gulyantsi Miunicipality, Pleven Province
2nd c.
H 2.83 m

The statue represents a colossal standing female figure, wearing a long, deeply draped chiton, falling to the ankles, and a himation, one end winding round her right hand, the other, thrown over her shoulders. Such colossal plastic images from Antiquity are rare not only in our lands. The statue makes it possible to trace the working process practised in Antiquity, especially characteristic of large-sized sculptural works – the making of the head and limbs separately from the torso and their subsequent attachment to it. The torso is made of two large blocks to which the head and arms are attached. The holes from the metal brackets are visible. The more carelessly executed back of the statue suggests that it was erected in a temple or other place where it was only seen from the front. There is no consensus among scholars as to which goddess is represented. The large size, the clothing, and the pose, point to Demeter, Fortuna, Persephone, Kore and the Muses. If the depicted goddess is Demeter, she must have held a torch in her right hand and ears of wheat in her left. If she is Fortuna, she probably held a cornucopia in her left hand. The deep cut pleats on the goddess's chiton and the artistically draped himation give a sense of movement. Under the clothes, the volumes of the body are skillfully conveyed, and the deliberate lengthening of the lower part emanates monumentality and grandeur.

The characteristic details in the manufacture of the goddess's clothes point to a date in the Age of the Antonines, specifically in the middle of the 2nd century. The statuary type and composition define it as a master copy of a famous Greek original from the school of Praxiteles.

Bibliography:

Избрани скулптурни паметници 2000: В. Герасимова, Г. Кабакчиева, Е. Генчева, К. Меламед, К. Карадимитрова, Л. Вагалински, Л. Слокоска, М. Ваклинова, М. Рехо, Р. Милчева, С. Петрова. Избрани скулптурни паметници. Водач. София, 2000, кат. № 39.

Филов 1910: Б. Филов. Избрани паметници на античното изкуство в България. I. Мраморна статуя от Гиген. – Известия на Българското археологическо дружество, I, 1910, 1-8.