Statue of a Seated Woman
2nd century
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
82 × 63.5 × 38.2 cm (32 3/8 × 25 × 15 in.)
Classification
marble
Department
Arts of Greece, Rome, and Byzantium
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
65244
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 ...
About the Artist
Ancient Roman
The artists attributed to "Ancient Roman" in museum collections represent the anonymous craftsmen who produced the vast output of sculpture, frescoes, mosaics, and reliefs defining Roman visual culture from the Republic (c. 509–27 BCE) to the late Empire (c. 395 CE). Individual identities remain elusive, as Roman makers were typically viewed as skilled tradesmen—often enslaved Greeks or provincial...