A GREEK MARBLE TORSO OF ARTEMIS

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK MARBLE TORSO OF ARTEMIS
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.
Superbly sculpted, the goddess depicted wearing a chiton together with a himation pinned on her left shoulder, both clinging diaphanous garments revealing her body beneath, the form further enhanced by a baldric worn diagonally over her right shoulder and between her breasts, standing with her weight on her right leg, the left projecting forward, red pigment unusually well preserved along the himation
31 in. (78.7 cm.) high

Provenance

with Merrin Gallery, New York, late 1980s.
American Private Collection, acquired in 1987.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 5-6 December 2001, lot 514.

Lot Essay

The treatment of the drapery and the vigorous forward movement of this Artemis compare to the Artemis Colonna type, named for the example now in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, fig. 356 in Bieber, Ancient Copies. They differ in that the Artemis Colonna wears only a peplos, while here the goddess wears a himation over a chiton, but the overall effect of the clinging garments restrained by a baldric is the same for both statues. The absence of the quiver suspended by the baldric over her right shoulder is noted on a number of examples, including the Artemis of Dresden type (see the example in the Louvre, no. 80 in Pasquier and Martinez, et al., Praxitéle). Some ancient copyists add other attributes to convert the basic sculptural type into other figures, including an Ariadne now in the British Museum, and a Tyche now in the Glyptothek, Munich, figs. 353 and 355 in Bieber, op. cit.

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