Archaeology Magazine - June 1969 - 39

SPERLONGA

continued

(Left) At the beginning of the restoration we believed
that the left foot ot Polyphemusrested fiat on the ground.
(Right) As more fragments of the foot of Polyphemus
were assembledand as restorationprogressed,we realized
that only the toes and the ball of the foot rested on the
ground. The dark areas are plaster restorations;the light
areas the original marble fragments.
right angle, and holding a piece of knotty pole in the
hand was discovered in the museum's storerooms.
Two other fragments, one ending in something that
looked like a burning torch, were connected with the
arm. I thought it best to give precedence to the restoration of this group because scholarly attention
from the very first had been focused on the "Laocoon"
group and because there clearly had been technical
mistakes in its reconstruction in the Museum.
A SHORTCAMPAIGN
OF RESTORATION
took place in
the summer of 1967. As a result of our work, it appeared certain that a gigantic leg previously assigned
to Laocoon was actually connected with another leg,
recently reconstructed from fragments, which could
not possibly have stood in the erect position of the
Laocoon. Then we found a piece of a giant's arm
resting on some rocks, with a few locks of hair adhering to the rocks. Our giant could only have been
reclining or semireclining, since there were pieces of
rock under his leg as well. The possibility that the
group might represent Laocoon struggling with the
serpents of Athena had to be abandoned, while the
theory that this statue might represent Polyphemus
reclining drunkenly on the floor of his cave began to
gain credence. The bent arm could belong to a companion of Ulysses preparing to thrust the flaming pole
into the giant's single eye.
The most exciting discovery we made, toward the
end of this first period of work, was the identification
of large pieces of Polyphemus' head: the neck, part of
the mouth with the teeth, part of the upper lip and
moustache, a portion of the nose, and part of the
forehead and hair. Across the bridge of the nose was
a clearly marked line, which seemed to be the lower
lid of Polyphemus' central eye. From what has so far
come to light, the giant's head does not seem greatly
different from the head of Polyphemus in the Museum
of Fine Arts, Boston.
In restoring the Sperlonga sculpture,
I decided to adopt a new method of working. Instead of
approaching the usual restorers, excellent as they are,
who work by bringing the pieces together until they
find points of juncture, I entrusted the work to a
sculptor expert in ancient art, Professor Lorenzo Ferri,
and his staff, who modeled certain missing parts in
clay, as counterparts of those which were preserved.
The full clay models were made in the same scale

as the original marble fragments. This is an important
part of the process of finding fragments for it is the
scale that actually allows recognition of quite unrecognizable parts, such as a piece of calf-muscle too
small to show tendons or veins. Then single marble
fragments, brought to the clay for comparison, could
be recognized and inserted in their proper places.
Naturally, the clay models did not always correspond
cxactly to the marble originals ; they merely served to
suggest surfaces and planes, and to assist the work of
identifying the often tiny fragments.
For example, when we restored the giant's left foot,
we already had the right one. Using this as a basis, the
left foot was modeled in clay, as if it rested firmly on
the ground. But as the fragments of the left foot were
assembled, we noticed that it was not resting flat, but
was bent so as to rest mainly on the toes. The clay was
useful in recognizing the fragments to be assembled,
but of course, in the final analysis it was the fragments
themselveswhich determined the definitive restoration.
This brief, painstaking season of restoration begins
the road leading to results of even greater scientific
interest. Our method of restoration in the face of this
unique and huge collection of fragments has proven
fruitful.
From September 4 to 8, 1968, the Department
of Antiquities for Latium held in the Museum of
Sperlonga a symposium on Hellenistic art. Many
well-known scholars participated as well as thirty research fellows from both Italian and foreign universities. The heart of the discussion was, of course, the
sculptures from the Sperlonga Grotto and their iconographical and stylistic problems. Attention focused especially on the Polyphemus and Scyllagroups.
The renewal of interest in the Sperlonga sculpture,
after the newly made restorations and particularly
after the meetings, led the Ministry of Public Instruction to provide new funds adequate to continue
work for two more years. In February of this year
begins another campaign of restoration: our prime objective will be the completion of the Polyphemus
group and the study of the others.

(Left) Two fragmentsof sculpture from the storeroomsof the National Museum,Sperlonga: a bent arm holding a piece of a knotty pole and the flamingend of a torch. The
arm belongsto one of the companionsof Ulysseswho helps to thrust the torch into the
eyeof the giant Polyphemus.

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Archaeology Magazine - June 1969

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