Headless statuette of seated Zeus

In the statuette, depicting a masculine figure covered by an ample cloak and seated on a throne, one can clearly recognize Zeus for the iconography widely attested by numerous copies, an identification also confirmed by the preserved attribute, the thunderbolt held in the right hand. The sculpture shows a long fracture running from the neck across the chest and reaching the right hip.

The god is seated on a throne with a high curvilinear back, devoid of the arms and supported by rectangular legs with a curvilinear and double cyma profile: it is the same kind of throne visible on several Roman frescoes and reliefs, deriving directly from Greek exemplars; a specimen can be seen on the front of a sarcophagus, now in the Vatican Museums, where Pluto is portrayed seated on a throne identical in shape to ours (160-170 AD).

On our exemplar Zeus is shown frontally with a certain natural comfort in the posture, granted by the tilted shoulders and the flexed legs. The right shoulder is lowered and follows the movement of the arm that, loosely, rests onto the corresponding thigh with the hand holding the thunderbolt, while with the left hand little raised an open he held the sceptre, lost on this statue but easily conceivable. In a contrasting pattern, to the relaxed right arm corresponds the right leg that sharply bends and rests only on the tip of the foot, with the heel leaning over the base of the throne, while to the left arm stretched out to hold the sceptre corresponds the left leg pushed outwards with the whole of the foot laid on the ground. The rhythm of the slightly tilted upper part of the body and the pose of the legs help in heightening the impression of deep spaciality.

The bust is naked and has a moderate turn towards the right, the pubis and the legs are concealed by the himation that at one end falls sideways in thick folds around the left leg, while the rest of the drapery, after having enveloped the back, is broadly displayed over the left shoulder. The anatomical rendering of the nude is that of a body of mature age, yet treated without excessive volumes: the pectoral muscles are broad and outlined, with the epigastric arcade moderately marked; the linea alba follows the gentle tilting of the figure towards the right; the slit navel is underlined by the double fold of a thin adipose tissue that seems to soften the muscular structure.

Good stylistic handling is shown by the cloak draped over the legs in the precise design of the folds, from which forcefully protrude the bent knees that pull the fabric of the himation. The latter produces artful dark and light effects thanks to the deep ridges of the creases, that are soft and parallel over the thighs and then become more tensed and diagonal from the right knee to the left ankle, behind which the garment is pulled diagonally backwards as it is held under the left thigh, thus creating a large bunch of folds.

As in many other marble copies of the same subject, the head is here missing. Our iconographic type appears in fact reproduced on several other statuary exemplars both in marble and bronze, as well as on reliefs and lamps.

Amongst the most famous marble copies there is the “Verospi” Zeus in the Vatican Museums, Hall of the Busts, where the image of the god is portrayed with a chiastic arrangement. We must note that in our sculpture the arrangement is instead inverted: to the right leg pushed forward corresponds the left arm raised holding the sceptre, now missing, while to the leg bent back corresponds the lowered arm resting on the thigh and holding in its hand the thunderbolt.

On the contrary, strong similarities can be found with another copy in the Museo Nazionale Romano, dated to the second half of the II century AD, that differs for the presence of the eagle crouched beside the god, to whom it was probably gazing, according to the same iconography first employed by Alexander the Great and then repeated on several imperial statues.

These statues belong to the series of copies, all made in the Imperial age, depending on the image of the Capitoline Jupiter created by Apollonios, as shown by the remakes of the Capitoline Triad such as those found in Pompeii dating to the reign of Nero, now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale of Naples, and the famous group of the late Antonine period (160-180 AD) carved in Luna marble in Palestrina’s Archaeological Museum. It is in this last sculpture that our image of Jupiter finds close resemblance: identical arrangement of limbs, same treatment of the drapery’s folds and search for dark and light plays.

Thus, our statue of Jupiter may represent an exact copy of the original Capitoline sacred image and, for its relatively small scale, it may stand as a testimony of the god’s cult in the private sphere.

Moreover, on grounds of both the discussed comparisons and the stylistic characteristics it is possible to date the work to the middle of the II century AD.