Marble Statue of a Seated Muse in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2007

Marble statue of a seated muse
Roman, Imperial period, 1st or 2nd century AD
Copy of a Greek statue of the 3rd century BC
Restorations made in the early 17th century: the nose, chin, neck, large pieces on the right side of the back, pieces in the drapery, chips in the body, and the plinth. The head is ancient, but from a different statue.

Accession # 03.12.16

Seated on a rock, with her head resting on her right hand, this muse was probably part of a group of statues showing a musical contest between the boastful satyr Marsays and the god Apollo. The statue was part of the collection of antiquities acquired in Rome by the Marchese Vincenzo Giustiniani during the first thid of the 17th century.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.