Torso of Artemis with Head of Aphrodite

The short dress (chiton) and remnants of a quiver on her back identify the woman as Artemis, goddess of the hunt. The head, although also ancient, once belonged to a statue of Aphrodite. It is not known when these two pieces were joined, but it was common practice in the 18th and 19th centuries to combine ancient fragments or re-create missing parts of statues to make them more aesthetically pleasing. The head of Aphrodite is of the Capitoline type.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Lante Montefeltro della Rovere family, Rome, by 1778, [mode of acquisition unknown]. Comte James Alexandre de Pourtalès-Gorgier, Paris, by 1841, [mode of acquisition unknown]; sale, Catalogue des objets d’art qui composent les Collections de feu M. le Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier, Paris, 21 March 1865, p. 16, lot 56. Henri Daguerre, Paris, by 1921, [mode of acquisition unknown]; Joseph Brummer, Paris and New York, 1921, by purchase [Brummer inv. no. P220]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1922, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.