Apollo's twin sister Artemis "Buried by Vesuvius" at the Getty Villa until October 28, 2019

Apollo's twin sister Artemis "Buried by Vesuvius" at the Getty Villa until October 28, 2019.
The goddess Artemis was the daughter of Zeus, king of the gods, and the Titaness, Leto. Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities and her temple at Ephesus was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. In this incarnation of her, traces of copper inlay remain on the lips and she once had inset eyes. Parts of the nose, chest, and drapery are eighteenth-century restorations. The figure has been variously identified as the Ptolemaic queen Berenike, the poet Sappho, and an Amazon. Her identification as the goddess Artemis is based on comparisons to other works, as well as the bust’s findspot near an image of Artemis’ twin brother, Apollo . This sculpture is larger and more naturalistic than the archaic style of Apollo's sculpture, however. She was found at the east end of the rectangular peristyle of the Villa dei Papiri on April 29, 1756.


Image: Artemis, goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth and virginity, Roman copy of Greek original, 1st century BCE to 1st century CE, bronze and copper, image courtesy of Allan Gluck.

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