Statue of Athena-Rospigliosi Type
1st Century AD
Statue of Athena-Rospigliosi Type
Inv. 1914 no. 185
Roman Art, I Century A.D.
Greek medium-grained marble
Hight m. 1.62
The statue is considered one of the best replicas of the so-called Rospigliosi type after a model by the Greek sculptor Timotheos, who was a major representative of Greek art at the end of IV Century B.C.
The Uffizi marble, dating to the I century A.D., is exceptionally well-preserved and, since its arrival in the Gallery in the first decades of the XVIII Century, has been enjoying pride of place in the third corridor of the museum. The work, that had undergone a cursory cleaning process around ten years ago, showed evident degradation and color-changes of the old fillings, as well as thick incoherent deposits, which seriously impaired its legibility.
The restoration intervention, carried out with great care and rigor by Studio Techne, besides
bringing the statue back to its original splendor, also offered the opportunity to investigate and confirm – by removing the fillings and verifying the correspondence of the fracture lines – the actual pertinence of the ancient lower part (base with feet, part of the tunic and owl). Likewise, the replacement of the fillings at the base of the neck permitted ascertaining that also the head originally belonged to the sculpture, a fact which considerably increases the importance of the Uffizi statue among the existing replicas of this Late Classical model.
The intervention was also important to fix and stabilize the deteriorating wooden shaft the goddess holds in her left hand. This addition of the VIII-Century restoration showed evident signs of decay and weakening caused by woodworm and humidity, which had made its recuperation particularly urgent.
Finally, the ancient parts and modern integrations have been accurately mapped, and the systematic photographic campaign will be an indispensable instrument for future studies on this important marble.
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