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Lot Essay
The nine Muses were goddesses of the arts and sciences. In both the Greek and Roman traditions they inspired the knowledge necessary for excellence in such fields as poetry, history, music, drama and astronomy, and were often represented as personifications of their areas of patronage. The kithara is the attribute most commonly associated with Terpsichore, the Muse of dance, and Erato, the Muse of lyric poetry.
Sculptural groups representing the nine Muses were popular at least as early as the Hellenistic Period, and continued to be used by the Romans for the embellishment of theatres, baths, private estates, and in relief on sarcophagi. The peplos, worn here, and the kithara, echo the earlier Greek artistic tradition, and may suggest that this is a Roman copy of a Greek original.
Cf. Statue of a Muse at the Getty Museum, Malibu (obj. no. 94.AA.22). This similarly diminutive figure exudes the same youthful, idealised beauty as the present lot, and is further comparable due to its flattened back, which, as with the present lot, suggests it was originally placed in a niche.
Sculptural groups representing the nine Muses were popular at least as early as the Hellenistic Period, and continued to be used by the Romans for the embellishment of theatres, baths, private estates, and in relief on sarcophagi. The peplos, worn here, and the kithara, echo the earlier Greek artistic tradition, and may suggest that this is a Roman copy of a Greek original.
Cf. Statue of a Muse at the Getty Museum, Malibu (obj. no. 94.AA.22). This similarly diminutive figure exudes the same youthful, idealised beauty as the present lot, and is further comparable due to its flattened back, which, as with the present lot, suggests it was originally placed in a niche.