Roman Bronze Statuette of Minerva

$789.82

A finely modelled Ancient Roman cast bronze statuette depicting the Roman goddess Minerva, portrayed wearing the aegis, a peplos and a crested Corinthian helmet. Her left hand is raised possibly to old a spear, now missing, while the right-hand rests on her body holding possibly a patera. The deity’s facial and anatomical features are rendered in an extremely naturalistic manner with much attention given towards the rendering of details.

Date: Circa 1st-3rd century AD
Condition: Extremely fine, with details still clearly readable.

SOLD

In Roman religion Minerva, the equivalent of the Greek goddess Athena, was an extremely important and powerful deity. Minerva was worshipped by the Romans as a goddess of medicine, strategy, science and wisdom. Bronze statuettes, such as this extremely fine example, would have been placed in temples and shrines as votive offerings. The connection with a religious and ceremonial context is reinforced by the presence of the patera, a broad and shallow dish or bowl, mostly produced in bronze, and often used as a sacred libation vessel. The iconography of Minerva holding a spear and a patera appears also in Roman imperial coinage.

Weight 77.2 g
Dimensions W 2.9 x H 6.7 cm
Culture

Metal

Region

Roman Mythology

Reference: For a similar item, The Metropolitan Museum, item 96.9.285