This week’s sculpture from Hadrian’s Villa is a head of a goddess made of Pentelic marble. She is wearing a diadem in her wavy hair that are centrally parted and dressed in a chignon at the nape of her neck. It was found in a cryptoporticus near the circular temple dedicated to the Venus of Knidos.

Bust of a diademed goddess, found at Hadrian’s Villa Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome © Carole Raddato

The head of this female deity was made separately for insertion onto a larger than life-size body. The type is known from other copies of the Roman period deriving from a Greek, probably Attic, model in the severe style (470-460 BC).

This sculpture is on display at the National Roman Museum – Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Rome.

Source: Following Hadrian