Statue and painting of Artemis?

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

Do you see some resemblance between these two?


Khairete
Giannis

[Vindex]

I would have to say no, actually....

[M. Demetrius]

Superficially, yes. They share some elements.

But the bubbles :?: in the painting seem to be attached to a garment, while the sculpture seems to represent a fertility goddess with many breasts and flocks symbolized in her "womb". Maybe I'm looking at them wrong, though.

[john m roberts]

The fresco seems to be a personification of the wine harvest with the deity (Bacchus?) represented with an anthropomorphised cluster of grapes, pouring a libation, the fertile, vineyard-covered slopes of Vesuvius in the background and the genius loci represented by the serpent and pillar in the foreground. My guess is that the villa's owner wanted abundant harvests of grapes from his vineyards on Vesuvius. The leopard is associated with Bacchus/Dionysus. Diana/Artemis was usually accompanied by a stag.

The much-discussed "Artemis" figure is thought by some to be wearing the testicles of sacrificial bulls. Note the bull figures decorating her skirt.

Or maybe they made wine from squashed bull's testicles.

Maybe the grape person is one of the Fruit Of The Loom guys (a prominent manufacturer of subligacula.)

[hoplite14gr]

The goddess refered as Artemis in Ephesos is the surviving cult of the "mistress of nature".
In the area around Ephesos the cult was centered around the bee hive worship.
One interpretation of the statue is the earth made bee-hives of the area.

After the calrifications that J.M. Roberts did on the fresco I keep thinking that it is a different cult but of similar concept.
The Christian interpretation of Jesus as "the vine of life" might have originated there - who knows?

Kind regards

[Vindex]

The figure in the fresco has a simple wreath in his/her hair and wears a garment which could be taken for a bunch of grapes. He/she is holding a staff in one hand which seems to be decorated with an animla (cow/bull?)and something else in the right. Sorry, not familiar with the the fresco so being a bit vague.

The figurine is clearly more goddess-like. The head is adored with an elaborate headress. The costume is covered either in breasts for fertility or bull testicles for some other reason (and is echoed by the bulls at her feet)

The only similarity is the apendages on the garment which are quite different elements and the possible connection is a cow/bull (on the staff in one and at the feet of the other)

Sorry...I really can't see why they would be the same deity at all!

[Giannis K. Hoplite]

I didn't actually believe they represented the same deity, but there is much controversy over the Artemis/Diana/Mother godess statue and what it is supposed to represent,and i thought that this painting was bearing some resemblance. There are actually more theories than the breasts and the bulls' testicles,that have been discussed in the shield device thread. And since it didn't spring to my mind that those "bubbles" that Bachus was wearing resemble grapes,i found it rather intriguing. They do look like grapes now,even if a bit big compared to the figure!
Khairete
Giannis

[Vindex]

I think that if you look at the fresco from a further distance the bunch of grapes image appears more pronounced...

[M. Demetrius]

They do look like grapes now,even if a bit big compared to the figure!

Maybe the grapes on Olympus were bigger? :wink:

[recondicom]

Is the Python (Etruscan fresco?) associated with the sauromatae/taurian mountain? Also a guardian (Egypt). The statue could have been in a tauropolos Temple surviving in Ephesus… taurine blood baths famous at the magical practices. Perhaps similar to those of Taueret (first lower set of three animal representations). I may add that it could been where asses have been sacrificed ( fresco empty pillar).
In addition.
Imprisonment of the souls in fleshy bodies has to do with reincarnation theories/religious rituals.
Their bodies are watery spheres and the organ of vision windows.