19TH CENTURY ITALIAN MARBLE BUST OF MINERVA GIUSTINIANI - REF No. 1077

Product Details

H: 21.07 in / 53.5 cm ; W: 7.68 in / 19.5 cm ; D: 6.5 in / 16.5 cm

A fine 19th century Italian carved marble bust of Minerva Giustiniani / Athena Giustiniani, with a Corinthian helmet decorated with a Sphinx raised on a square socle base,after the antique.

l9th century

Italian

Footnote:

The Athena Giustiniani or Minerva Giustiniani is a Roman marble statue of Pallas Athena, based on a Greek bronze sculpture of the late 5th–early 4th century BCE. Formerly in the collection of Vincenzo Giustiniani, it is now in the Vatican Museums

Athena/Minerva -as goddess of wisdom, skills and warfare- was one of the twelve Olympians. Here she is depicted wearing her traditional helmet. The bust is taken from a full figure sculpture known as the Athena (Minerva) Giustiniani. The Minerva had been bought by Lucien Bonaparte in 1805, and was installed in the grand hall of his Roman residence, the Palazzo Nunez. In 1817 he sold it to Pope Pius VII who was commissioning the Braccio Nuovo of the Vatican Museums. When the Braccio Nuovo was opened in 1822, the sculpture was installed as it is today.