[solo lute]
Male Narrator J. Paul Getty’s interest in classical antiquities began with his first visit to Italy and Greece before the first World War. He was inspired by what he described as “the crumbled and fragmentary remnants of the architectural marvels that these long dead civilizations have produced.”
Getty began collecting Greek and Roman art during his stay in Italy in 1939, and this ancient Roman sculpture was acquired in 1954 from the Florentine dealer Mario Bellini. Bellini was the head of a family of famous antiquarians whose business dates back to the mid eighteenth century. In his diaries, Getty recalls Bellini’s “gracious hospitality” at his host’s “magnificent villa.”
The identity of the figure represented is uncertain, as the statue is now missing its head, left arm, and the front of both feet, all of which were carved separately and attached in antiquity. It may represent a Muse or other goddess, and Getty and his advisors compared it favorably - especially the carving of the drapery folds - with similar ancient statues in the Uffizi in Florence, in the Vatican Museums, and a third discovered in 1885 in excavations of the Colosseum in Rome.
