A ROMAN BRONZE MINERVA

CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN BRONZE MINERVA
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
The goddess wearing her aegis and a mantle over her shoulders, a long peplos below, her right hand upraised, perhaps once holding her spear, the left hand projecting forward, perhaps once holding her shield, her Attic helmet surmounted by an owl supporting an elaborate plumed crest, the goddess's eyes recessed for possible inlays, atop a tall square plinth with projecting moldings
10¼ in. (26 cm.) high

Provenance

with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1985 (Art of the Ancient World, vol. IV, no. 285a).

Literature

C.C. Vermeule and J.M. Eisenberg, Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes in the Collection of John Kluge, New York and Boston, 1992, no. 88-17.

Lot Essay

For a bronze Minerva with an identical Attic helmet with an owl and crest, and similar treatment of the garments, see the example in the Musée romain at Avenches, Switzerland, no. 195 in Canciani, "Athena/Minerva" in LIMC.

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