19 Inches High x 7.25 Inches Wide x 10 Inches Deep The bust is from the statue of Meleager found in the Vatican Museums. It is a Roman copy of a lost Greek original from circa 340 B.C.E. and is attributed to Skopas. One of the leading sculptors and architects of his time, Skopas began the tradition of imbuing faces with emotion as opposed to the reserved features typical of Greek sculpture up until this point. There are many full and partial Roman copies of the lost Greek sculpture - approximately 40 - and they vary in style and are attributed to various artists. Based on the similarities, scholars determined that an original Greek work must have existed for the Roman sculptors to copy. In the myth on which the full sculpture is based, the goddess Artemis sends a boar to ravage the town of Calydon after Oeneus, the king of Calydon and Meleager's father, fails to make a sacrifice to her. Meleager leads the hunt for the boar and kills it. Afterwards, he fights with and kills his mother's two brothers, and soon his mother brings about his own death. In the full sculpture, Meleager is depicted with his hunting dog at his right side and the head of the Calydonian boar atop a tree stump to his left. The hero wears a short cloak that partially covers his chest and shoulders while the end of it wraps around his left arm and blows in the breeze. The sculpture depicts Meleager victorious, having just killed the boar. Artist: Unknown Museum: Pio Clementino Museum, Vatican Museums, Vatican City Time Period: Ancient Greek, 340 B.C.E./Ancient Roman, mid 2nd century C.E. Sources: "Head of Meleager." Kimbell Art Museum, https://kimbellart.org/collection/ap-196710. "Meleager." Museum number 261. Museum of Classical Archaeology Databases. University of Cambridge, UK, https://museum.classics.cam.ac.uk/collections/casts/meleager. "Meleager." Vatican Museums, https://m.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani-mobile/en/collezioni/musei/museo-pio-clementino/sala-degli-animali/meleagro.html. "Statua di Meleagro; da un modello databile intorno al 340 a.C. attribuito a Skopas." Vatican Museums, https://catalogo.museivaticani.va/index.php/Detail/objects/MV.490.0.0?lang=en_US. "Statue of Meleager." The Art Institute of Chicago, https://www.artic.edu/artworks/40593/statue-of-meleager.
