Fragment of a draped female statue

The female statue presented the left shoulder higher than the right (the restoration is based on an ancient remnant at the base of the neck and therefore ­correct) and the right arm hanging down by the side. The figure wears a light, close-fitting garment with sleeves attached by means of buttons. This has slipped down to leave the right shoulder bare and the top edge forms a V-shaped fold above the breast. The second, sleeveless garment worn over it has “shoulder straps” attached to an intermediate element (of metal?) that are still clearly visible on the right arm and partially on the back of the left shoulder close to the neck. This garment hangs over the hips and, like the first, has slipped down from the right shoulder so that the two necklines form a large and very evident V-shaped motif on the torso. Even though the back is less carefully carved, the second garment is still recognizable due to the greater emphasis of its left edge, which follows a diagonal course to meet up with the other below. The iconographic motif of a garment leaving the shoulder bare without exposing the breast is widespread in statuary as from the second half of the 5th century BC, especially but not exclusively in images of Aphrodite. It can be found in numerous Greek images that are presumably of the goddess (the identity of the subject cannot always be ascertained), mostly handed down through copies of types attributed on the stronger or weaker grounds to Phidias or his pupils Agoracritus and Alcamenes. The motif of the exposed shoulder retained its popularity over time and distinguishes many other images of Aphrodite, including two groups regarded by virtue of the rhythm and construction of the body as “archetypes” of the early (4th-3rd century BC) and late (1st century BC) Hellenistic era. The topos of the bare shoulder naturally found its way into Roman imagery too, e.g. the statue of Venus in the cella of the temple of Mars Ultor in the Forum of Augustus. Figures such as Hygieia, the Muses, the Horae, Tyche/Fortuna, Tellus and Victoria were then also portrayed with a bare shoulder, which was used in general to enhance the female powers of seduction. The second garment she is wearing, it seems to be a stola, the emblematic dress of Roman matrons (“matronas appellabant eas fere quibus stolas habendi ius erat”), recognizable by its “shoulder straps”. 11 The equivalent of the male toga, it came to symbolize the virtues of chastity, modesty and honour of married women to such a degree that its use was obligatory under Tiberius. It usually appears on statues over a tunica and together with a mantle wrapped around the waist during the 1st century AD, and with greater frequency in Julio-Claudian age. The fragment therefore offers a rare example of stola and undergarment (a sort of sleeved tunic called calasis 15) together with the bare shoulder, a combination previously known in the field of carved gems. The most celebrated example is the representation of Livia enthroned with the bust of the god Augustus in her right hand on a cameo in Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, from the period 14-29 AD, where the tunica but not the stola has slipped down from the shoulder. Livia dressed only in a chiton and with a diadem and veil on her head presents a bare shoulder also on a cameo in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and a bust identified as Octavia Minor, sister of Augustus, today in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen presents a stola with a tunica that does not appear to cover the left shoulder. While a bare shoulder was no guarantee of similarity to Venus, close relations with the goddess were attested for numerous princesses and empresses, primarily of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, in virtue of their descent from Venus Genetrix, the founder of the gens Julia, in the iconographic, epigraphic and literary spheres. Initial evidence for the dating of the Mainetti Collection fragment is provided by the stola, which was very frequent in the first half of the 1st century AD. The characteristics of the drapery, of excellent workmanship with the traces of drilling carefully smoothed to attenuate any mechanical effect, appear to suggest a similar period and even to narrow it down to the second quarter, at least with the necessarily approximative instruments of stylistic analysis. Terms of comparison for the consistency of the folds and the almost triangular recessed motif between the breasts are provided, for example, by the statue of Livia from Veleia, dated 38-40 AD, 22 as well as a togate statue from Cerveteri of the Claudian era 23 and figures from historical reliefs of the same period. 24 In short, by virtue of clothing and chronology, the Mainetti fragment, the original height of which was over 180 cm, could be a precious remnant of an Augusta exhibited in a public space 25 with a peculiar combination of modesty (the stola) and eroticism (the bare shoulder). To conclude, the pose with the shoulders not aligned and one breast higher than the other, albeit with no excessive loss of balance, does not at first sight rule out the possibility that the sculpture, perhaps resting on the right leg and hence with the left shoulder raised, included a small pillar to the left after the fashion of the Aphrodite of the Gardens or the Venus in the temple of Mars Ultor. In addition to being somewhat anomalous for an iconic adaptation, 26 however, this reconstruction proves lacking in cogency, as the reason for the raised shoulder may also have been the rhythm of the figure, perhaps with an accentuated twist of the head towards the side of the free leg. If anything, it is reasonable to suggest that there was also a third garment, a mantle (palla), either wrapped around the waist to cover the legs and over the left forearm or, less probably, held with one hand in front of the body.