Statue of a Seated Woman

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Roman sculptors often adapted the forms of earlier Greek artworks for use in entirely new contexts. This statue evokes the figures of seated, draped goddesses displayed in the pediments of the Parthenon, the renowned temple on the Acropolis in Athens. Among the Romans, this statue type was widely used for sculptures of female deities such as Juno (the Greek Hera), the consort of Jupiter (the Greek Zeus), as well as for portraits of empresses and other prominent women. Here the figure’s head and arms, now missing, were made separately and attached by means of dowels, the holes for which are visible.

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