Description - Comments:

The statue is preserved almost intact. The head is put back together attached at the middle of the neck (a small part at the base of the neck is missing). Small breaks and chipping are evident sporadically on the surface of the marble, especially along the ridges of the of the garments. It depicts a standing (on a circular plinth), frontal female figure bearing the weight of her body on the left leg, while the right leg is bent and pulled sideways and slightly backwards. She wears a long chiton, a wide himation that wraps around most of the body, and Hellenistic-style sandals (the three-tiered soles follow the contour of the toes). The face is oval with full cheeks, a narrow mouth with fleshy lips, a thin nose and almond-shaped eyes with wide lids. The eyebrows end in sharp edges. She wears the typical classicizing melon headdress. The statuary type of the “Small Herculaneum Woman” is faithfully copied. The information that the statue was found together with the probably theomorphic portrait statue in the guise of Hermes Athens National Archaeological Museum inv. no. 241 (Kaltsas 2001, 312, cat. no. 653, principate of Hadrian), although it is very likely, it cannot be confirmed without any doubt (A. Michaelis and A. Conze saw the statues together in 1860 at the house of Aristides Georgiou, according to the testimony of whom they were found them together near his house in the southern part of Aigion). The association of the two statues is usually “confirmed” in research by analogy to the statue group of two Roman benefactors of the city of Andros, whose portraits were found together; the male portrait is theomorphic in the guise of Hermes, while the female one is in the type of the “Large Herculaneum Woman” (on the statue groups of Andros and Aigion see Daehner 2007, 134 [C. Vorster]; Stephanidou-Tiveriou 2009, 366-368 with bibliography). The statuary type of the “Small Hercualneum Woman” and the melon hairstyle do not a priori exclude the identification of the female depicted as a married woman, despite the fact that both hairstyle and statuary type are more frequently used for depictions of girls and young women in general (on these two issues – the statuary type and the melon hairstyle as markers [or not] of young age see M. Gkikaki, Die weiblichen Frisuren auf den Münzen und in der Großplastik der klassischen und hellenistischen Zeit: Typen und Ikonologie, Rahden 2014, 487, 505, 518; Daehner 2007, 102, 106, 120-122, 129-131, 133, 135 [J. Daehner and C. Vorster]). The funerary function of the statue is more difficult to confirm, since on the one hand we ignore its exact findspot, on the other hand the statue group of Andros already mentioned and previously assumed to be also of funerary function, today it attributed to an Heroon in the Agora of the ancient city of Andros (Stephanidou-Tiveriou 2009, 366-368 with bibliography).

Bibliography:

G. Körte, “Zwei Statuen aus Aigion in Achaia”, AM 3 (1878), 95, pl. 6; P. Kavvadias, Γλυπτά του Εθνικού Μουσείου: κατάλογος περιγραφικός, Athens 1890, 197-198, no. 242; M. Collignon, Les statues funeraires dans l’art grec, Paris 1911, 170-172, fig. 101; H. Kruse, Römische weibliche Gewandstatuen des zweiten jahrhunderts n.Chr., Göttingen 1975, 294 no. 5 (“Small Herculaneum Woman”); M. Bieber, Ancient Copies: Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art, New York 1977, 149; N. Kaltsas, Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο. Τα γλυπτά. Κατάλογος, Athens 2001, 268-269, cat. no. 562, fig. 562; J. Daehner ed., The Herculaneum Women: History, Context, Identities, Los Angeles/Dresden 2007, 73, 134 note 116, fig. 3.11 (C. Vorster); A. Alexandridis, Die Frauen des römischen Kaiserhauses: eine Untersuchung ihrer bildlichen Darstellung von Livia bis Iulia Domna, Mainz am Rhein 2004, 243, no. 6 (Trajanic-Hadrianic); Th. Stephanidou-Tiveriou, “Les héros de Palatiano. Une nouvelle proposition de restitution et d’interprétation du groupe statuaire”, BCH 133.1 (2009), 367 with bibliography in note 108 (Hadrianic).