Statue of goddess Minerva.Roman. 1st to 2nd Century BC

Statue of the goddess Minerva. Roman, 1st-2nd century AD.
Bronze.
Provenance: Private collection, Japan, formed in the 1960s. Archaique Gallery, Japan, before 1997. Private collection, London.
Publications: Christie's Antiquities. London 6 December 2017. Lot 66
CONSERVATION: Good state of preservation, without restorations. It shows a lack on the tip of the index finger of the left hand, as well as on the tip of the right horn of the helmet.
Measurements: 18.5 cm high.
Powerful sculptural image of the goddess Minerva, made in bronze, worked using the hollow or hollow technique, in lost wax.
The dimensions of the figure are considerable in relation to the small votive offerings that are preserved with the image of Minerva (Athena in the Greek world). She wears a Doric peplum that falls vertically, forming a wide pleat at the hips, and which is girded below the breasts by a cord knotted in the centre with a large fallen ribbon. In all the details of the clothing, and in the figure as a whole, which is carefully worked in the round, we can observe the delicacy and great quality of the modelling, as well as a special attention to detail, which is unusual in the series of votive statues known from the whole of the Empire, which are usually of a more summary resolution. The standing figure is composed from the position of the left leg, which barely stands out beneath the dress, as a supporting element, and the right leg, which is slightly exempt. The torso seems slightly turned to the right: an effect that is emphasised by the position of the head, erect and turned to that side. The precise modelling of the rounded oval face and the delicacy with which the small details of the face are resolved deserve to be emphasised, as the features are soft and a slight smile can be glimpsed. She is usually depicted with a serene but striking face, while this statuette shows a more youthful and human side of Minerva, as in this case she is not depicted with her war attributes, such as her shield, aegis or feathered Corinthian helmet. Instead, she is crowned by an Attic helmet with horns, worn in a similar manner. These decorative helmets were ceremonial rather than functional objects. The helmet releases the side locks of her hairstyle and the long hair, which, divided in two in the form of large, contoured braids, unite on her back below the end of the plume that prolonged the crest of the helmet. Typologically, it corresponds to the theme of the offering divinity, as in the hand of the right arm, advanced towards the viewer, he holds the phiale or libation bowl, typical of the religious ritual art of ancient Greece. The left arm, raised above the head with the hand half-open, undoubtedly marks the posture of holding the spear. This is one of the combinations, with the exception of the horned helmet, in which the goddess has been most often depicted in votive offerings, much smaller than the one shown here, but with the more common helmet of the type of Athena of Piraeus. The quality of this work brings it close to the best works of minor thoreutics produced by the Romano-Oriental workshops that worked on these statuettes based on reinterpretations or variants that refer, either in the general composition or in the details or specific attributes, to those originals. In Roman mythology, Minerva is the goddess of wisdom, the arts, the techniques of war, as well as the protector of Rome and the patron saint of craftsmen. For the Greeks she is the goddess of war, civilisation, wisdom, strategy, science, justice and skill. She is one of the principal divinities of the Greek pantheon and one of the twelve Olympian gods. Athena was worshipped throughout Ancient Greece and throughout her area of influence, from the Greek colonies in Asia Minor to the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa.