Marble statue of an old woman | All | Greek and Roman Art | Collection Database | Works of Art

Description

The woman wears a thin elegant dress, thong sandals, and a crown of Dionysiac ivy leaves. She may be dressed for a festival and the birds and basket of fruit she carries might be offerings. Her garment has slipped off her shoulder, a detail often seen in representations of old women that hints at the liberation of the elderly from the restrictions imposed on women of childbearing years. As in many such figures, direct observation of reality lends force to deeper religious implications. The piece may be a copy of an older, Hellenistic model or a creation of the Roman period in a tradition that was still alive. It seems to have been deliberately damaged, probably in the late antiquity, when such a pagan image would have provoked hostility.

ProvenanceFound in Rome, September 1907, on land belonging to the Congregazione degli Operai della Divina Pietà (Robinson 1909, p. 206).

September 1907, found on property belonging to the Congregazione degli Opera della Divina Pietà, Rome; after 1907, purchased by A. and A. Jandolo from the Congregazione; acquired March 1909, purchased from A. and A. Jandolo, Rome.

Selected BibliographyMariani, L. 1907. "La Vecchia del Mercato." Bullettino della Commissione Archeologica Comunale di Roma: 257-66, pl. VII.

Vaglieri, D. 1907. In Notizie degli scavi di antichità: fasc. 9, 525, figs. 45, 46.

Robinson, E. 1909. "The Old Market Woman." MMA Bulletin 4: 201, 204-6, ill.

Reinach, S. 1910. Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine. Vol. 4. Paris: E. Leroux, p. 349, no. 7.

Richter, G. M. A. 1932. In P. Arndt and G. Lippold, Brunn-Bruckmnann's Denkmäler griechischer und römischer Sculptur. Munich: F. Bruckmann, pl. 730.

Waldhauer, O. 1946. "Myron's Anus Evria and the Drunken Woman in Munich." American Journal of Archaeology 50: 244-46.

Richter, G. M. A. 1954. Catalogue of Greek Sculptures. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, p. 111, no. 221, pl. CLIV.

Bieber, M. 1961. The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age. Rev. ed. New York: Columbia University Press, p. 141, n. 50, fig. 590.

Vermeule, C. C. 1980. Greek Art: Socrates to Sulla, from the Peloponnesian Wars to the Rise of Julius Ceasar. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, p. 91, no. 121.

Laubscher, H. P. 1982. Fischer und Landleute: Studien zur hellenistischen Genreplastik. Mainz: P. von Zabern, pp. 8, 10, 32ff., 43, 86, 93ff., 116, no. 38, 121, pls. 26, 2, and 27, 1, 2.

Bonacasa, N. 1983. "Socialità e arte nel 'soggetto di genere' ellenistico." In Alessandria e il mondo ellenistico-romano: Studi in onore di Achille Adriani. Rome: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, vol. 1, p. 128.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 74, pl. 54.

Wrede, H. 1991. "Matronen im Kult des Dionysos: Zur hellenistischen 'Genreplastik.'" Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Roemische Abteilung 98: 174, n. 72, 176-77, pl. 43, 1, 2.

Reusser, C. 1993. Der Fidestempel auf dem Kapitol in Rom und seine Ausstattung. Rome: "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, pp. 185-96, 240-42, no. 9, figs. 102-6.

Abramitis, D. H. 1997. "Statue of an Old Woman." MMA Bulletin, n.s., 55, no. 3: 30-37, figs. 1-3, 5-7.

Bol, P. C. 1997. Liebieghaus-Museum alter Plastik: Führer durch die Sammlungen. Griechische und römische Plastik. Frankfurt am Main: Liebieghaus, p. 188, fig. 122.

Picón, C. A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 490, no. 432, ill. p. 371.

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Greek and Roman Art: All