Psyche of Capua

Sculpture

Museum of Antiquities - University of Saskatchewan

Bust from front

2015-00-00

Name/Title

Psyche of Capua

Entry/Object ID

85H0143

Description

Bust of a goddess. Head bent down towards the right, torso extending to solar plexus, top of head sheared. Marble replica with smoke damage making the surface yellowish. Repaired to reconnect head to torso.

Type of Sculpture

Bust

Artwork Details

Medium

Marble

Context

Found badly mutilated in the amphitheatre at Capua, this sculpture is incorrectly named as it more likely represents Aphrodite. Earlier believed to be by Praxiteles (see also: Hermes and the Infant Dionysus; Apollo Lykeios), it is rather a copy after a work by Scopas, having characteristic sloping shoulders, globe-shaped breasts, peculiar mouth and dilated nostrils, the ear slanting back with the lobe close to the head. The figure originally leaned its weight on the right leg and drew the drapery, which covered the lower part of the body, over the left shoulder with the left hand. The head, turned to the right and bent down, suggests the figure may have been part of a group, perhaps with Eros holding a mirror.

Made/Created

Artist Information

Artist

Scopas

Role

Sculptor

Date made

100 BCE - 1 BCE

Time Period

Hellenistic

Ethnography

Culture/Tribe

Greek - Hellenistic

Research Notes

Research Type

Reference

Notes

Furtuangler, Adolf. Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture. Chicago: Argonaut Publishers, 1964. 395. Public: No

Research Type

Reference

Notes

Labande, Y. and E.R. Naples and its Surroundings. Translated by J.H. Shaw. London: N. Kaye, 1955. 97. Public: No