Statuette of Artemis

Roman art

This small statuette depicts the goddess Artemis. The figure’s weight is supported by the left leg, while the right leg is moved back. She is wearing a short chiton beneath a himation, which is arranged diagonally across her chest and gathered in a knot of soft, generous folds. Her right arm (restored) is raised, while the left is turned downward, and she holds part of the drapery with her left hand near her hip.

Restored by Antonio d’Este in 1828, the sculpture was moved multiple times until 1888, when it was installed in Room III. The short chiton, the arrangement of the himation knotted in the front and the pose of the arms seem to associate the sculpture, which is datable to the second century CE, to the iconographic type of the Laphria Artemis, attributed by Pausanias to the sculptor Damophon, who was active in the second century CE.

Object details

Commentary

In 1828, Antonio d’Este restored a ‘Statuetta di Diana ancor questa bizzarra tanto nel suo movimento che nel modo con cui è vestita, scolpita in marmo statuario, di proporzioni di palmi 4. Adattata una testa del proprio’ (‘Statuette of Diana as strange in pose as in dress, carved in statuary marble, measuring 4 palmi. Adapted a head of my one’). As recorded in the Quinta Nota degli Oggetti Antichi provenienti dalla Villa Borghese, the work cost ‘80 scudi’ (Archivio Apostolico Vaticano, Archivio Borghese, b. 1007, fasc. 301: Moreno, Sforzini 1987, pp. 361–362).

In 1832, the sculpture was installed in Room II, on a four-sided altar decorated with a crow and a deer, motifs tied to the cults of Artemis and Apollo (inv. XCIII: Nibby, p. 79, pl. 44a). After the installation of the statue of the effeminate Hercules, it was moved to Room I, where it is listed in the Indicazione of 1854 (p. 13, no. 18). In 1888, it was moved to Room III, its current location. It was described in the guide published by Venturi in 1893 as a ‘piccola statua forse di un’Amazzone’ (‘small statue perhaps of an Amazon’), of which ‘di antico non v’è più che il torso’ (‘only the torso is ancient’; p. 31). Giusti provided a long discussion of Amazons, covering their mythical origins and organisation. The scholar also discussed the survival of this all-female population, documented in 1541 in South America and from which the name of the local river derived, the Rio Amazonas (1904, p. 26).

The following parts of the statuette are restored: the plinth, the right foot, the left leg up to the hem of the garment and the right arm and shoulder, which was originally lowered. She is wearing a short chiton with sleeves, worn tight under the breasts. The balteus is partially covered by the mantle and crosses diagonally over her chest. The himation is draped over her left shoulder and pulled tight diagonally across the body to form a sinus on her right hip. She holds the drapery in a knot of soft folds in her left hand on her hip, from where it falls vertically. The figure is standing, with her left leg supporting her weight and her left leg bent, determining her gait. Her head, the crack where it is detached from the neck being visible, is slightly inclined to the left. She has an oval-shaped face and soft, full features. Her eyes, with smooth irises, are slightly deep set and topped with lightly arched brows. She has a small, prominent chin and full lips with dimples to the sides. Her hair is held with a taenia and arranged in soft wavy locks, parted in the middle above the forehead and gathered in the back.

The figure was initially interpreted as an Amazon but seems associated with the iconography of the Laphria Artemis, the etymology of which is still debated but is probably linked to her function as a civiliser of animal and human nature. The epithet is also attributed with the same meaning to other divinities, including Athena, Hermes and Apollo (Lepore 1986, pp. 149–156).

Pausanias reports various attributions for the original Laphria Artemis, including the one that seems to have been the archetype for the Borghese sculpture, attributed to the sculptor Damophon, active in Messene, and dated 191 BCE (Pausania IV. 31, 7).

Lippold compared the Borghese sculpture to a similar one in the villa’s park (no. 2800) and one in the Pinecone Courtyard at the Vatican (Amelung 1903, p. 865, no. 165, pl. 108). However, the Borghese statue differs from the typical iconography in the arrangement of the drapery, which is diagonal instead of horizontal, cinching the waist.

The handling of the surface of the drapery with dense, full folds suggests a date in the second century CE.

Giulia Ciccarello