Statue of Athena

Athena, the beloved daughter of Zeus, the goddess of wisdom and war, was one of the most venerated deities in Ancient Greece. Her cult was particularly popular in Athens. In the late 5th or early 4th century BC the workshop of Agoracritus (who was a disciple of the great Greek sculptor Phidias), produced the original that served as a prototype for the Hermitage copy made in Rome in the 2nd century AD. The master executed the monumental statue of Athena using the proportions elaborated by Polyclitus. But the Athena of his creation acquires infinite gracefulness due to the predominance of verticals in the arrangement of the clothing folds which accentuate the movement of the body. The image as a whole is notably harmonious, although the head (which in the original was reminiscent of Athena Parthenos by Phidias) does not belong to this statue and repeats a 4th-century BC archetype created in the traditions of the Greek sculptor Praxiteles.