CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

The seated muse Ourania is known from several copies, including fine examples in Liebighaus, Frankfurt and at the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, nos. 130 and 131 in Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture I, The Styles of ca. 331-200 B.C.. According to Ridgway (op. cit pp. 252-268) the pose is known from Attic vase-painting of the 5th century B.C. The earliest example in stone is on the Mantineia base, dated to the third quarter of the 4th century B.C., however here she does not rest her head in her hand. She is also shown seated in a similar pose on the Priene Altar, dated by some to the mid-2nd century B.C. Muses continued to be popular with the Romans, and a single now-lost sculpture may have been the inspiration for all of the surviving examples in the round.