A ROMAN MARBLE DIANA

CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE DIANA
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
The goddess of the hunt standing with weight on her right leg, her left leg bent at the knee and pulled back, wearing soft hide boots tied at the front, a knee-length tunic with buttoned sleeves below a shorter tunic fastened over the left shoulder, a belt high on the waist tied in a Herakles knot, the fabric of the garments hanging over the belt along her sides, a baldric worn diagonally over her right shoulder, the neck recessed for separately made head, on an integral oval plinth with a dog and tree trunk as the support
38 ½ in. (97.7 cm.) high

Provenance

with Henri Kamer & Cie, Paris, 1960s.
Private collection, Geneva.
with James Stirt, Vevey, from whom acquired by the present owner in 1995.

Brought to you by

Francesca Hickin

fhickin@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3195

Lot Essay

The treatment of the garments on the present figure is unusual in that the goddess wears a short tunic below a second slightly shorter tunic, the ensemble tied in a high belt. According to M. Bieber, the arrangement of the tunics in this manner is a decidedly Roman development (Ancient Copies, Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art, New York, 1977, p. 72). For another depiction of Diana with the same unusual treatment of the two garments see a statue in the Capitoline Museum, pl. 45, fig. 263 in Bieber, op. cit.

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