Attalos, Athens, and the Akropolis: The Pergamene ‘Little Barbarians’ and their Roman and Renaissance Legacy

This volume examines the ‘little barbarians’, ten highly expressive Roman marble figures of Giants, Amazons, Persians, and Gauls that were found in Rome in 1514 and are now recognized as copies of the Small (or Lesser) Attalid Dedication on the Athenian Akropolis. Manolis Korres’ recent discovery of the monument’s pedestals, fully published in this volume, has led Andrew Stewart to a complete reconsideration of the statues’ form, date, and significance. He demonstrates that this is the only Hellenistic royal donation of sculpture whose donor, location, and form are all known; the only one securely identified in copy; and the only one whose life can be glimpsed from beginning to end, a period ranging over 2200 years. Illustrated with new photographs of all ten Barbarians, and 26 new drawings by Manolis Korres, it systematically traces the Barbarians’ impact upon Roman and Renaissance art, and the intellectual history of art and archaeology.