Description - Comments:

Only the upper torso of the statue is preserved, up to the beginning of the thighs (the left wrist is broken). The head was inset. The drapery of the garments is deep and “hard”, worked extensively with the drill. Small breaks and chipping are evident sporadically on the surface of the marble, especially along the ridges of the folds of the garments. It depicts a standing, frontal female figure, wearing a long chiton and a wide himation that wraps tightly around the body. The himation is wrapped in a rather complex way around the body following a variant of the so-called “Formia” statuary type. More specifically, the himation is wrapped tightly under the chest, while its front edge creates a characteristic triangular shape in its course from the right shoulder to the slightly bending left forearm (its edge falls on the left forearm, leaving the wrist uncovered). The fingers of the bent right arm hold at the level of the neck the hem of the garment that descends from the left side of the neck. The statue can be dated to the Antonine period based on stylistic parallels (cf. the portrait statue {Γ145} from Sparta). The dating of the statue to the Antonine period probably disconnects it from the 1st c. CE mausoleum which was excavated on the plot of 80-82 Ermou street, in front of which the statue was found (I. Dekoulakou, «Monumenti delle necropolis di Patrasso durante il dominio romano», στο Patrasso colonia di Augusto e le trasformazioni culturali, politiche ed economiche della Provincia di Acaia agli inizi dell'età imperiale romana: atti del Convegno internazionale, Patrasso 23 - 24 marzo 2006, Atene 2009, 191-196, figs. 21-24; see also {Γ67}). It is possible that it comes from a similar funerary building-mausoleum, decorated with portrait statues in the round, which is probably situated in a neighboring plot and has not yet been unearthed.

Bibliography:

I. Dekoulakou, “Πάτρα. Οδός Ερμού 80-82”, ArchDelt 31 (1976), Β1, 102 pl. 80δ; A. Filges, Standbilder jugendlicher Göttinnen, Köln-Weimar-Wien 1997, 162 note 640 no. 9; N. Kazakidi, “Ένα οικογενειακό σύνταγμα ανδριάντων της εποχής του Κλαυδίου και το γυμνάσιο στη Σικυώνα”, in Th. Stephanidou-Tiveriou, P. Karanastasi, D. Damaskos eds., Κλασική παράδοση και νεωτερικά στοιχεία στην πλαστική της ρωμαϊκής Ελλάδας. Πρακτικά διεθνούς συνεδρίου, Θεσσαλονίκη, 7-9 Μαΐου 2009, Thessaloniki 2012, 206 note 45 (the possibility should be explored that the present portrait-statue and the portrait-statue {https://achaeanwomen.eie.gr/γλυπτό/?statue_id=659} belong to the same funerary monument); S. Tuccinardi, “Sculture romane da Formia. Una proposta di lettura in contest”, in C. Capaldi, C. Gasparri eds., Complessi monumentali e arredo scultoreo nella Regio I Latium et Campania: nuove scoperte e proposte di lettura in contest. Atti del convegno internazionale, Napoli, 5 e 6 dicembre 2013, Napoli 2017, 61 note 88; P. Konstantinidis, Γυναικείοι δυναστικοί εικονιστικοί ανδριάντες αυτοκρατορικής περιόδου από την Ελλάδα (τέλη 1ου αι. π.Χ. – 5ος αι. μ.Χ.), Athens 2024, 223 note 185.