2nd century AD. A finely-grained white marble bust of a youthful female, possibly a muse, eyes turned and looking upward, mouth slightly open; hair swept back from a centre parting and tied at the back in a bun with tresses of hair falling across the neck; mounted on a custom0-made stand. [A video of this lot is available on the TimeLine Auctions website] 7.83 kg, 33cm including stand (13"). From an old British private collection; formed between 1975 and 1985. The treatment of the hair and the soft facial features display similarities to a statue of a Muse from Cremna in modern day Turkey, and now in the Getty Villa, Malibu. The upward gaze of this piece and the open mouth would also indicate that the head is that of a Muse, possibly Euterpe the goddess of music, song and lyric poetry. The hair is also in the Greek style that was popular during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian and his successors and which was copied by female members of the Imperial family. The statue would have formed part of a group along with the other eight Muses and with Apollo as the central figure and would have reflected the refined tastes of the owner as a patron of the arts and literature; such groupings of statues of the Muses and Apollo are known as a 'Mouseion', or shrine of the Muses. Similar arrangements have been found in the villa gardens of the Roman rich, and Cicero describes statues of the Muses that decorated the garden of his villa at Tuscullum, and he states that 'to live with the Muses is to live with education and refinement.' The Emperor Hadrian also had a arrangement of statues of the Muses at his villa near Tivoli and which reflected his taste for Greek art and culture.

Fine condition.