Protome

Olpa in the Louvre , V. c. BC er from Corinth .

In Persepolis .

Protoma ( ancient-Greek. Προτομή - front of the body, muzzle, head) - the image of the front of the body of an animal or a mythological creature, or the upper part of a human figure.

The common form of figure completion is the rhyton , the sculptural decoration of the capitals of a column, piece of furniture, jewelry. P.'s images are known in ancient Greek art from the 7th — 6th centuries. BC e., in the art of the Hellenized East, in the period of Hellenistic and post-Hellenistic monarchies. The term is also used to define such pictorial motifs on the more ancient, pre-Hellenistic monuments of Near-Asian art.

In the architecture of Persia VI — IV centuries. BC er there are columns, completed by capitals in the form of double prot, between the heads of which are laid beams of overlap. Such protomes were carved out of stone, brightly painted and gilded. They can be considered as one of the manifestations of the international "animal style."