3-052-410 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Niobe at Mount Sipylus, near Magnesia, 1880. Example of '...ancient sculpture in Asia Minor...the figure cut in the rock on Mount Sipylus, near Magnesia,...was sketched by our well-known Special Artist, Mr. William Simpson...[who notes that] passage of the twenty-fourth book of the Iliad, in which Achilles, by way of consoling Priam for the loss of his son, reminds him of the greater affliction of Niobe, in the death of all her sons and daughters. "And now indeed, far amidst the rocks of the desert mountains of Sipylus, she sits forlorn, being made a stone, and broods over the sorrows that were sent her by the gods"...whether the figure so called which is still remaining on Mount Sipylus...is the same figure, or whether it ever represented Niobe, is far from certain. Mr. Simpson has even some doubt whether it may not be a male figure, as there is some indication of a beard, or something beneath the chin. The perpendicular cliff has been hollowed out in a niche, and here is carved the figure, seated in what seems to have been meant for a chair; the knees seem to be covered with a robe; the arms are pressed against the bosom, and even the fingers are visible; but the head and face are destroyed by time'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.