1920.44.135: Fragment of a Seated Nude Female Figure, copy after a Hellenistic type
SculptureIdentification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1920.44.135
- Title
- Fragment of a Seated Nude Female Figure, copy after a Hellenistic type
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Work Type
- sculpture
- Date
- c. 117-190 CE
- Period
- Roman Imperial period, Middle
- Culture
- Roman
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/292561
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Marble from mainland Greece, Pentelic (?)
- Dimensions
- 18.6 cm (7 5/16 in.)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
-
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Museum, 1920.
Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
- Accession Year
- 1920
- Object Number
- 1920.44.135
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
63
Fragment of a Seated Nude Female Figure
All parts are missing above the waist; the knees and part of the left thigh are also missing. The surfaces are damaged and worn.
The statue appears to have been a Roman copy of a Hellenistic type, probably carved in the second century A.D. The nude figure is seated, with legs a little apart, upon some drapery spread over a pyramidal-shaped rock, set on a rough, circular base. Part of her left hand touching the drapery beside her is visible. The draper flows down in wide folds and stops just beneath her feet. She is seated slightly to the right of the seat.
The figure is patently fat and unideal. The subject may be Lamia seated in the country; known from Aristophanes and various Greek vases, this very rotund, sometimes sphinx-like creature would be a very suitable subject for the decorative naturalism of Hellenistic sculpture (Vermeule, E., 1977, pp. 296-297).
Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer
Publication History
- Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 81, no. 63
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu