She wears a crown of flowers arranged in three tiers, on top of which is placed a puffed-up veil that cascades down over her shoulders. Two flying victories (nikai) were suspended next to her face, on either side; only the left one is now entirely preserved. The space between the nikai and the godess' neck is filled in by a large four-petaled flower, similar to those that decorate her crown.

She is wearing a tall tubular headgear (polos), decorated with imaginative figures (sphinxes and griffons) arranged in two horizontal registers separated by two labra. Above them survives the bottom part of an architectural feature (probably an aedicula or a temple): it is possible to reconstruct its full semblance from better-preserved copies. All these statues seem to be based on the same iconographic archetype: the great cult statue of Artemis from the temple at Ephesus in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Having been accurately restored, the Ephesian Artemis from via Marmorata has become part of the permanent collection of the Museo Nazionale Romano and since April 2009 has been on display at Palazzo Altemps.

She wears a crown of flowers arranged in three tiers, on top of which is placed a puffed-up veil that cascades down over her shoulders. Two flying victories (nikai) were suspended next to her face, on either side; only the left one is now entirely preserved. The space between the nikai and the godess' neck is filled in by a large four-petaled flower, similar to those that decorate her crown.

She is wearing a tall tubular headgear (polos), decorated with imaginative figures (sphinxes and griffons) arranged in two horizontal registers separated by two labra. Above them survives the bottom part of an architectural feature (probably an aedicula or a temple): it is possible to reconstruct its full semblance from better-preserved copies. All these statues seem to be based on the same iconographic archetype: the great cult statue of Artemis from the temple at Ephesus in Asia Minor (modern Turkey).

Having been accurately restored, the Ephesian Artemis from via Marmorata has become part of the permanent collection of the Museo Nazionale Romano and since April 2009 has been on display at Palazzo Altemps.

Photos