A Roman Marble Figure of Artemis, 1st/2nd Century A.D.

A Roman Marble Figure of Artemis, 1st/2nd Century A.D.

standing against a tree-trunk support with the weight on her right leg, a dog sitting by her side, and wearing high boots, short-sleeved tunic with overfold, animal skin (nebris) tied with a belt around her waist, mantle falling from her left shoulder, and quiver strap stretching across the chest; the base, left leg, right foot, both arms, quiver, and head formerly restored.
on a modern limestone base

Height 120 cm., 47¼ in.
socle : 65 by 67.5 by 55cm, 25 ⅝ by 26 ⅝ by 21 ⅝ in.

Catalogue Note:
A Roman marble torso of Artemis based on the same statuary type is in Berlin, restored as a complete statue (A. Conze, Königliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der antiken Skulpturen, 1891, pp. 32-33, no. 62, illus.; arachne.dainst.org/entity/1121633). A more fragmentary one is in the Tartus Museum (M. Koçak and D. Kreikenbohm, eds., Sculptures from Roman Syria II, 2023, pp. 173-174, cat. no. KhLub-1). The classical Greek type/original would have been created in the 4th century B.C.

According to Stephanie Dimas (op. cit.), a drawing made in Rome in the 1570s in the Cesi Gardens (Reinach, op. cit., and Hülsen, op. cit.) probably represents the current torso with different restorations; the author also notes that the torso could perhaps later be traced to the Villa Martinori in Rome sometime in the 19th century, although based only on a description (Matz and Duhn, op. cit.).

William Waldorf Astor acquired most of his ancient marbles in Rome in the late 19th/early 20th Century.

Provenance:
probably Cardinals Paolo Emilio Cesi (1481-1537) and Federico Cesi (1500-1565), garden of the Palazzo Cesi on the Janiculum, Rome, acquired prior to 1550

perhaps Villa Martinori, Rome, 1870s

William Waldorf Astor, later Viscount Astor of Hever (1848-1919), Hever Castle

Gavin Astor, 2nd Baron Astor of Hever, Hever Castle (Sotheby's, London, 11-12 July 1983, no. 357, illus.)

Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1984

Summa Galleries, Beverly Hills, mid 1980s

The Allen E. Paulson Living Trust (Christie's, New York, 10 June 2010, lot 161, illus., still as restored)

Cahn, Basel

acquired by the present owner from the above in 2012

Literature:
perhaps Friedrich Matz and Franz von Duhn, Antike Bildwerke in Rom, vol. 1, Leipzig, 1881, p. 180, no. 678

probably Salomon Reinach, L'album de Pierre Jacques, sculpteur de Reims, dessiné à Rome de 1572 à 1577, Paris, 1902, pl. 88bis

probably Chr. Hülsen, Römische Antikengarten des 16. Jhs., Heidelberg, 1917, pp. 32f., no. 132, fig. 25 (drawing by Pierre Jacques)

Gavin Astor, Statuary & Sculpture at Hever, Ipswich, 1969, no. 7, illus.

Stephanie Dimas, in: Stephanie Dimas, Carola Reinsberg, and Henner von Hesberg, Die Antikensammlungen von Hever Castle, Cliveden, Bignor Park und Knole, Wiesbaden, 2013, pp. 34-37, cat. no. He 3, pls. 3-4

Arachne, no. 1067460 (arachne.dainst.org/entity/1067460, and various in-situ images, incl.

arachne.dainst.org/entity/1241063)

Records of The Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Census ID 158395, https://database.census.de/detail/158395 (last checked 11 August 2023).