Title: Mantinea statue base
Context: From Mantinea
Findspot: Found at Mantinea (in 1887)
Summary: Mantinea statue base for statues of Leto, Apollo, and Artemis
Object Function: Cult
Sculptor: Attributed to the workshop of Praxiteles
Material: Marble
Sculpture Type: Statue base, relief-decorated
Category: Separated fragments
Style: Late Classical
Technique: Medium relief
Original or Copy: Original
Date: ca. 330 BC - ca. 320 BC
Scale: Under life-size
Region: Arcadia
Period: Late Classical

Subject Description: Pausanias (Paus. 8.9.1) noted that images of the Muses and Marsyas playing the flutes decorated the base of the (cult) statue group of Leto, Apollo, and Artemis. Three reliefs found at Mantinea have thus been taken to be those mentioned by Pausanias.

Form & Style: While Pausanias noted that the cult statues in one cella of the two-part temple at Mantinea were created by Praxiteles, he does not mention the artist(s) who created the reliefs on the statues' base: while the style and date are certainly related/contemporary to Praxiteles' work, the carving is not thought to have been of the highest quality, so that most scholars are inclined to interpret the base reliefs as products of lesser artisans in Praxiteles' workshop.

Condition: Fragmentary

Condition Description: Three of four large plaques are largely preserved.

Sources Used: A. Ajootian in Palagia & Pollitt 1996, 122-24; Stewart 1990, 177, 279, figs. 492-94

Other Bibliography: Flashar 1992, 115, n. 12; Ridgway 1990a, 253-54; Linfert-Reich 1971; F. Brommer, JdI 3 (1950) 95-98; W. Amelung, Die Basis des Praxiteles aus Mantinea (Munich 1895); C. Waldstein, AJA 7 (1891) 1-18; J. Overbeck, Die in Mantinea gefundenen Relief mit Apollo, Marsyas und Musen (Munich 1888); G. Fougères, BCH 12 (1888) 105-2