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Lot Essay
Melpomene, daughter of Zeus and Mnemosyne, was the Muse of Trajedy. She was usually depicted with a tragic mask in one hand, as here, and a knife or club in the other, here hanging over her shoulder.
Sculptural groups representing the nine Muses, sometimes including Apollo, were popular at least as early as the Hellenistic Period, and continued to be used by the Romans for the embellishment of theaters, baths, private estates, and in relief on sarcophagi. Hellenistic relief scenes of the nine, perhaps already referencing earlier sculptural groups in the round, are found on a votive relief from Didyma and on the Halikarnassos base (see ill. 31 and 32 in Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture I, The Styles of ca. 331-200 B.C.). Perhaps the most famous group, mentioned by Pliny (Natural History, 36.34), was the work of the sculptor Philiskos, located by the Portico of Octavia and in the Temple of Apollo Sosianus. Not much is know of Philiskos, but it is thought the statues described by Pliny were sculpted in Rome by commission, perhaps during the 1st century B.C., rather then booty procured in Greece. Their location in Rome would make them the strongest candidate as the source of inspiration for the many surviving statues of Muses. For the topic see Ridgway, op. cit., p. 252ff.
Sculptural groups representing the nine Muses, sometimes including Apollo, were popular at least as early as the Hellenistic Period, and continued to be used by the Romans for the embellishment of theaters, baths, private estates, and in relief on sarcophagi. Hellenistic relief scenes of the nine, perhaps already referencing earlier sculptural groups in the round, are found on a votive relief from Didyma and on the Halikarnassos base (see ill. 31 and 32 in Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture I, The Styles of ca. 331-200 B.C.). Perhaps the most famous group, mentioned by Pliny (Natural History, 36.34), was the work of the sculptor Philiskos, located by the Portico of Octavia and in the Temple of Apollo Sosianus. Not much is know of Philiskos, but it is thought the statues described by Pliny were sculpted in Rome by commission, perhaps during the 1st century B.C., rather then booty procured in Greece. Their location in Rome would make them the strongest candidate as the source of inspiration for the many surviving statues of Muses. For the topic see Ridgway, op. cit., p. 252ff.