A roman marble statue of a goddess. Early 1st century a.d., after a greek original of the 5th century b.c.

10 octobre 2008

A roman marble statue of a goddess. Early 1st century a.d., after a greek original of the 5th century b.c.

A roman marble statue of a goddess. Early 1st century a.d., after a greek original of the 5th century b.c. Christie's Images Ltd. 2008

Standing with weight on right leg, with a slight twist to the upper body, left leg bent at the knee and tilted away from her body, wearing finely carved belted drapery with long, heavy overfall, tied at her waist with an elaborate Herakles knot, with long vertical pleats and V-shaped folds between her breasts, the sleeves fastened along the upper arms with circular pins, on polished black marble mount - 54 in. (137 cm.) high; mount 11 in. (28 cm.) high - Estimate £700,000 - £900,000 ($1,207,500 - $1,552,500)

Provenance: Swiss-German private collection, since the early 20th Century.
Swiss private collection, acquired in 1985.

Exhibited: Musée d'art et d'histoire, Geneva, 1985-2008.

Notes : This statue almost certainly represents Athena, the great 'bright-eyed' goddess, daughter of Zeus, warrior, protector of Athens, defender of heroes and the embodiment of wisdom, who was depicted in numerous guises throughout the ancient world.

The statue finds its closest parallel in the surviving statues of the 'Athena-Marsyas group', the best examples now in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt, in the Paris Louvre, and Lateran Museum in Rome. These sculptures of Athena are Roman marble versions of the Athena from a famous bronze sculptural group of 450-440 B.C. depicting Athena and Marsyas, and attributed to the Greek sculptor Myron, thanks to a mention from Pliny the Elder refering to a "... satyr in admiration before Athena and her flute" (Natural Histories, XXXIV, 57). The decoration on a vase from the 5th Century B.C., along with some Athenian coins from the reign of Hadrian (117-138 A.D.), has enabled historians to piece together this group which is also mentioned by the Greek traveller and geographer, Pausanias, writing in the 2nd Century B.C. The latter noted that he had seen on the Acropolis in Athens "... a statue of Athena striking Marsyas, the Seilenos, for taking up the flutes that the goddess wished to be cast away for good" (Periegesis 1, 24, 1). In the original bronze group, Marsyas was depicted in the act of picking up the double-flute (aulos) which Athena had cast down at his feet. The myth recalls that Athena had invented the aulos, but the other deities had mocked how her cheeks bulged out when she played, thus she threw the musical instrument away, cursing whoever should pick it up. Hitherto seen only on vases and reliefs, Myron was the first to depict this subject in major sculpture, and was seemingly inspired by a play. The innovation here is the concept of a sculptural group where the figures are not merely juxtaposed - as in archaic sculptural convention - but drawn into a common action, the stance of each being explained by the attitude of the other.

The Athena and Marsyas group has a similarity of stance to the present sculpture; shown with weight on right leg, the left leg fluidly bent at the knee, there is a light outward twisting movement. The goddess wears no aegis and the girdle - with a central Herakles knot - is worn above the overfall. However the differences in the shape of the overfall, and the width of the girdle, coupled with the variant of shoulder fastening, would point against a definite attribution to this group. These elements are more similar to those seen, for example, on the Ince-Blundell Athena (now in the World Museum Liverpool), or the Athena known as 'Minerve au collier' in the Louvre, both Roman copies loosely inspired by the Athena Parthenos of Phidias, or on reliefs such as the Mourning Athena (460-450 B.C) in the Acropolis Museum, and the reliefs depicting Athena (amongst other deities) from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.

The famous Athena and Marsyas group was recently recreated in an exhibition at the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt in 2008, bringing together a Roman marble statue of Marsyas from the Vatican collections and the Frankfurt Athena, cf. Die Launen des Olymp, der Mythos von Athena, Marsyas und Apoll, Liebieghaus, Frankfurt, 2008, pp. 73 ff. For the Louvre Athena of the Athena-Marsyas group, cf. A. Pasquier and J-L. Martinez, 100 chefs-d'oeuvre de la sculpture grecque au Louvre, Paris, 2007, pp. 84-85.; see also, in the same publication, the statue of Athena Parthenos type, pp. 76-77.