Roman
A Goddess (Peplophoros), early 1st century
Greek marble (probably from the islands), 148 cm (58 1/4 in.)
This white marble statue of a goddess is slightly over life size. She is missing her head and both arms from just below the elbow. The marble is finely polished with some pits and areas of discoloration. She wears a flowing dress, with an ample overfold above the waist that stretches loosely over her chest and appears to be gathered in at her waist. The looseness of the fabric over her upper body hides her actual waist. The garment is fastened at her shoulders to create a loose boat neck, with four pleats at each shoulder. Her arms are uncovered. What remains of her right arm rests by her side while her left arm is slightly lifted and bent tightly at the elbow so that the little that remains after the elbow is lifted straight up. There is a remnant of drapery beside her left elbow. The bottom half of her dress falls from her waist into small folds around her slender body, ending at the top of her feet. Her bare feet, intricately and realistically carved, are visible under her toga, with her right foot slightly in front of the left. The fabric of the garment seems thin because we see the outline of her breasts and how they affect the draping in the chest area. Her thin skirt shows the outline of a bent right knee, indicating her weight is on her left leg and hip.
Courtyard
Commentary
The most famous statue at Fenway Court is probably the Peplophoros, a representation of a youthful goddess such as Persephone, made at the time of Julius Caesar or Augustus after an original of about 455 BC. The smooth finish of the surfaces and the translucent qualities of the Greek island marble make this a very attractive modernization of a bronze from the so-called Severe Style that led to the golden age of Phidias and the Parthenon in Athens. The goddess, or perhaps a noble mortal, wears a high-girt Doric chiton with an ample overfold. The chiton is represented as sewn at the right side, where a long wavy seam with horizontal stitches has been carefully copied in marble from the bronze original. Mrs. Gardner’s treasure of Greek female dignity was discovered in March 1901, on the site of the famous Gardens of Sallust, in the property of the Sisters of San Giuseppe on the Pincian Hill. Mrs. Gardner never saw the statue in Boston. It was a showpiece of the American Academy in Rome from 1901 until 1936, when the Italian government authorized its export.
Source: Cornelius C. Vermeule (1978), "A Goddess (Peplophoros)," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 7.
Source: Cornelius C. Vermeule (1978), "A Goddess (Peplophoros)," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 7.