Les statues portraits, miroir des transformations sociales

Qui étaient les Grecs que l’on érigeait en statue ?
Si Socrate ou Périclès nous sont familiers, ils ne représentent qu’une infime portion des personnages immortalisés dans la pierre. Au IIe siècle av. J.-C., sur l’île de Délos, Kléopatra, une riche Athénienne, fait ériger sa propre statue ainsi que celle de son époux, au cœur même de leur demeure. Loin d’être un simple caprice, ce geste révèle une pratique bien plus vaste : durant l’époque hellénistique et romaine, des milliers de portraits sculptés fleurissent dans les sanctuaires et sur les places publiques, en hommage aux figures marquantes de la société.
À travers l’étude des portraits sculptés de Délos et d’Athènes, cet ouvrage explore en profondeur l’évolution des sociétés civiques grecques du IIIe siècle av. J.-C. au IIe siècle apr. J.-C. Pourquoi érigeait-on ces statues ? Qui décidait de leurs modèles ? Quels étaient les critères de notoriété ?
En croisant les sources archéologiques — sculptures, inscriptions, architecture — l’auteur met en lumière une réalité dynamique : derrière la pierre, un monde en mouvement, où l’individu et la cité redéfinissent sans cesse leur mémoire, leur identité et leur place dans l’espace commun.

Who Were the Greeks Immortalized in Stone?
While figures like Socrates and Pericles have endured through history, they represent only a tiny fraction of those who were sculpted in antiquity. In the 2nd century BCE, on the island of Delos, Kleopatra, a wealthy Athenian woman, had statues of herself and her husband erected at the very heart of their home. Far from a personal whim, this gesture reflects a much broader phenomenon: during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, thousands of sculpted portraits appeared in sanctuaries and public squares, honoring the prominent figures of society.
Through a close study of sculpted portraits from Delos and Athens, this book delves into the transformation of Greek civic societies between the 3rd century BCE and the 2nd century CE. Why were these statues erected? Who chose the individuals to be depicted? What defined fame and public recognition?
By bringing together sculpture, inscriptions, and architecture, the author reveals how these seemingly immobile monuments were, in fact, vibrant witnesses of a changing world — one in which the individual and the city continually renegotiated their memory, their identity, and their place in the public space.

Laureline Pop is an archaeologist specializing in Hellenistic and Imperial sculpture, as well as the social and institutional history of these periods. She earned her PhD from the University of Lausanne in 2023 and is currently a Swiss member of the French School at Athens. This book is based on her doctoral dissertation, which focused on portrait statues in ancient Greece. She is now pursuing postdoctoral research on stone sculpture techniques during the Imperial period.