• Sign up or login, and you'll have full access to opportunities of forum.

Agora

Go to CruxDreams.com
The story of Hypatia of Alexandria has been posted in various places on the forum, but this old thread is I think the most on-topic.

Here are some Sotheby's auction images of a life-size statue of Hypatia made in 1877 by the Italian sculptor (1831-1904)
276L17232_9GFY5_Reshoot_A.jpg181L17232_9GFY5_C_web.jpg199L17232_9GFY5_G.jpg182L17232_9GFY5_D.jpg183L17232_9GFY5_E.jpg184L17232_9GFY5_F.jpg194L17232_9GFY5.jpg277L17232_9GFY5_Reshoot_B.jpg278L17232_9GFY5_Reshoot.jpg700L17232_9GFY5_comp.jpg.thumb.500.500.png

The auction description is:

"The rediscovery of Odoardo Tabacchi’s Hypatia marks an important moment in the history of Italian 19th century sculpture. Undoubtedly one of Tabacchi’s masterpieces, the Hypatia was presented at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in Naples in 1877, where it captured the imagination of the editors of L’Illustrazione Italiana, who published an engraving of the marble in that same year (fig. 1); the Hypatia was subsequently exhibited in Paris (Panzetta, op. cit.).

Tabacchi’s masterpiece is a poignant and emotive tribute to the brilliant female classical mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher, Hypatia of Alexandria (circa 350/370 - 415 AD), who was head of the Neoplatonic School of Alexandria. Relatively little has survived of Hypatia’s work. However, she is understood to have written many collaborative works with her father Theon Alexandricus, and is credited with revising Ptolemy’s Almagest. Hypatia died as a result of being caught in a feud between the Roman governor of Alexandria, Orestes, and Cyril, the zealous rabble-rousing Bishop of Alexandria. Regarding her as a Pagan confident of Orestes, a Christian mob set upon the mathematician as she walked through the streets of the city. They dragged her to a church and stoned her to death with tiles, before flaying her, mutilating her body, and burning her limbs. Reciting her murder, the Christian church historian Socrates Scholasticus concluded: "Surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort” (Historia Ecclesiastica). Her murder was viewed by her contemporaries as an abomination, and has subsequently been seen as marking the death of Classical civilisation.

Tabacchi’s marble captures the moment before Hypatia’s agonising death. Tied to a post with a titular plaque inscribed with her name, Hypatia confronts her gruesome fate with shocked, open-mouthed expression, but intense, piercing, gaze. Stripped of her clothing and bound to a stake, Tabacchi’s statue embodies the appalling indignity of the scholar’s death. It is a reminder of the fate of intellectuals in history who have found themselves at odds with brutish ideology, and, viewed through a modern lense, is, perhaps, a symbol of the oppression of womankind, embodied in Hypatia, who was a rare example of a high ranking and renowned female public figure in antiquity."
 
Last edited:
What I think of about Hypatia's sad story: The fanatical Bishop Cyril, who incited the Christian mob on the smart and noble woman and let her die in a horrible way (lynch murder), was later canonized, although he did not have any kind of Christian charity, but only hatred carried in his heart...
But Hypatia of Alexandria has also survived as a saint. She is now called Catherine of Alexandria and is one of the most famous female saints of the Catholic and Orthodox churches. And suddenly she is a learned and wise Christian who died the death of a martyr.
"According to the current state of research, Saint Catherine is almost certainly an invented figure. The Catherine legend was presumably based on the personality and fate of the late antique philosopher Hypatia from Alexandria (approx. 355–415 / 416) who was murdered by Christians. Catherine's life was constructed; the roles of Christians and pagans were reversed" (Wikipedia).
Saint Catherine is considered the patron saint of schools and philosophical faculties, how fitting!
 

Attachments

  • Saint Catherine_Michelangelo Caravaggio.jpg
    Saint Catherine_Michelangelo Caravaggio.jpg
    2.2 MB · Views: 140
Back
Top Bottom