ClassificationsGreek and Roman Art

Statue of a Goddess or Muse (Terpsichore)

AAT Object Form/Functionstatues

CultureGreek

PeriodHellenistic

Datemid 2nd Century BCE

MediumMarble (head = Paros 1, body = Pentelikon)

Credit LineCarlos Collection of Ancient Art

DimensionsA and B combined: 39 × 11 1/2 in. (99.1 × 29.2 cm)

Object number2002.031.001A

Label TextAlthough her identity is not certain, this draped female figure may depict Terpsichore, the Muse of Dance. She stands in contrapposto with her weight on her proper right leg, leaning her left elbow on a tree stump. She wears a thin Ionic chiton, pinned at the shoulders and along each arm, and bound with a cord that passes beneath the breasts, under the shoulders and crosses at the back. Over this, a heavy himation is wrapped low around the hips and legs. One end is drapped over her left elbow, concealing the support beneath its folds. Her hair is elaborately braided into a coronet that circles the head, with a braided forelock running back from the center of the brow over the crown of the head. Her ears are pierced for the attachment of earrings. Traces of pigment remain on the lips, eyes and hair. Dowel holes in the top of the tree trunk suggest the attachment of an attribute, perhaps a kithara.

Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2004 - July 30, 2023
Published ReferencesMCCM Newsletter, December 2002 - February 2003.
"Museum Acquisitions," Art Newspaper 135 (April 2003): 20.
MCCM Newsletter, September - October 2004.
Jasper Gaunt, "New Galleries of Greek & Roman Art at Emory University: The Michael C. Carlos Museum," Minerva 16 (January/February 2005): 13-17.
Jasper Gaunt, Veranda (March/April 2005): 124-25.
Susan Jaques, A Love for the Beautiful: Discovering America's Hidden Art Museums (Gulliford, Connecticut: Globe Pequot Press, 2012), 41.
Robert H. Tykot, et al. "Analysis of Classical Marble Sculptures in the Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta," in ASMOSIA XI: Interdisciplinary Studies on Ancient Stone, ed. Daniela Matetic Poljak and Katja Marasovic (Split: University of Split, 2018), 501, figure 1.

ProvenancePurchased by MCCM from Robert Hecht (1919-2012) [Robert Hecht Gallery], New York, New York. Deaccessioned and transferred to the Hellenic Republic, January 23, 2024.

Status

Not on view