Statue of Artemis

Roman art

This sculpture depicts an Artemis of the Colonna type, wearing a sleeveless chiton and a peplos. Her quiver is attached to a baldric that crosses her chest diagonally. The left arm is reaching back to draw an arrow, while the right hand is poised to hold an object, quite likely a bow. The head is unrelated to the rest and surmounted by a mass of wavy hair fastened in a bun decorated with two thin ribbons. Iconographically, this sculpture is a mid-second century reproduction of a model derived from a Greek, Hellenistic-period original with a variation in the position of the arms. 

It was unearthed in 1820 during the excavations at Vigna Lucidi, which belonged to the Borghese family, and restored the same year by the sculptor Felice Festa.   

Object details

Commentary

This sculpture was unearthed during the dig executed by Prince Camillo Borghese in 1820 in a vineyard that belonged to the family in Santa Croce, between Monte Porzio and Frascati, assigned to Cesare Lucidi with an emphyteusis contract. In September of that same year, the statue was entrusted to the sculptor Felice Festa to be restored: ‘A life-size statue of Diana, goddess of the hunt, lacking the fingers on both hands, as well as the last phalanxes of the toes of the left foot; as the right arm is much too large, it will have to be studied and brought back to the proper proportions; should this not be possible, it will be made anew. All the missing portions of folds shall be restored, and the base of the statue will be levelled. All this, shall be done properly and using a similar marble’. On the modern part of the plinth, we can make out the monogram M L, which Moreno believes might belong to Massimiliano Francesco Laboureur, possibly a reminder of his participation in the works (Moreno, Sforzini 1987, p. 348). 

Nibby cites it in the Entrance Hall in 1832 and considers it ‘a copy of a classical original crafted in Hadrian’s time’ (p. 52). In 1893, Venturi assigns it to the same type as the Diana with a torch found in the Vatican Museums (p. 15). Calza, who indicates parts of the arms and the head as additions resulting from a conservation effort, ascribes it to the Colonna Artemis type, thus defined because of the specimen found in Berlin and hailing from the Colonna collection. This scholar believes it to be a Hellenistic work with references to fourth century BCE types (p. 9, no. 34).  

This life-size figure is captured in movement, the right leg straight, supporting the body, and the left extended forward. It is clad in a sleeveless chiton and a peplos with a baldric crossing the chest diagonally and forming a soft sinus under the left breast. The feet are clad in thick-soled sandals. The left arm is lifted and bent, captured in the act of drawing an arrow from the quiver; the right is extended along the body and is holding a restored object, possibly part of a bow.  

The head is not related to the body and is turned to the right. It is crowned by a mass of long wavy strands of hair parted down the middle and collected into a bun at the back. Two thin ribbons adorn the hair. The face is an oval; the almond-shaped eyes have a smooth iris and are surmounted by slender, arched eyebrows. The lightly parted lips are small and full; the chin protruding and round.  

This sculpture depicts the vastly duplicated iconographic type of Artemis goddess of the hunt, with a variation in the inverted arms. An especially fitting comparison may be found in the specimen preserved at Villa Albani (Linfert 1990, pp. 307–311, note 8, no. 15) and in another in the Musei Capitolini (Papini 2011, pp. 36–37). Another, analogous replica (Inv. XXXIII) belonging to the Borghese Collection is exhibited in the Entrance Hall and placed symmetrically to the door.  

In 1895, Amelung analysed the head and determined it did not belong to the statue of Artemis. He compared it with a similar specimen housed at the Uffizi and ascribed them both to the same original work from the fifth century BCE (p. 23, nos. 364–366). On the other hand, Von Steuben believes the source of this style can be found in the fourth century BCE (1966, pp. 704–705, no. 1943). 

Based on stylistic observations, especially the classicistic rendition of the folds of the drapery, the sculpture appears to be ascribable to the mid-second century CE, to which the head has also been dated.  

Giulia Ciccarello