Name

Headless statue of a draped woman (so-called Goddess of Butrint)

Original museum location and inventory no.

None, missing before the Butrint Archaeological Museum collection was established

Materials

White marble

Dimensions

Approx. 2.30 m high

Excavation context

Found by Ugolini in front of the scaenae frons of the theatre at Butrint

Bibliography

Ugolini, L.M. (1928) Le recente scoperte archeologiche italiane a Butrinto. Bolletino d’Arte 5: 237-240; figs 2-9.
Ugolini, L.M. (1928) La dea di Butrinto. Bolletino d’Arte 6: 258-278.
Ugolini, L.M. (1935) Il teatro di Butrinto. Atti della Pontificio Academia Romana di Archeologia. Rendiconti 11.1-2: 86-87; figs 12-13, 30.
Ugolini, L.M. (1937) Butrinto, il mito di Enea. Gli scavi: 137-142; figs 85, 92. Rome.
Bergemann, J. (1998) Die Römische Kolonie von Butrint und die Romanisierung Griechenlands: 55, 138-140; figs 82c-d. Munich.

Description (inc. icon. study, comparison with similar objects, production context)

The figure represents a woman standing with the weight primarily on her left leg and the right flexed leg set slightly forward; the surviving part of her upper right arm reaches out toward the viewer, the left hangs down by her side but would have been bent at the elbow. She wears a long chiton belted at the waist and with a deep overhang, and a voluminous mantle. The mantle is draped around her waist and round her back, with the ends hanging down from her left shoulder creating a rich pattern of waves on either side of her left arm right down to the ground. At the front the mantle covers most of her lower body and legs with an overfold forming an arch-like pattern across her stomach. There is a fine attention to detail in the buttons of her chiton on her right shoulder and upper arm and in the sandalled feet just visible under the rich drapery folds.
The overall impression is of abundance and of volumetric interest in the depiction, not simply in the rendering of the drapery but also in the articulation of the underlying body. The figure is at once very feminine and very imposing. The body type is one of a series of ‘Hellenistic’ types popular throughout the period of the Empire for the depiction of elite women (cf. also the Large Herculaneum type ). Stylistically it can be associated with versions commonly known as the ‘Nemesis of Rhamnous’ and the ‘Kore Albani’ types. Both lower arms were sculpted separately and attached at the level of the elbows (both are now missing) and a head would have been inserted in the cavity between the shoulders. Traditionally, the figure has been associated with a head of the so-called Antium Apollo type (see photo ), which is currently in the National Museum in Tirana (Inv. 1227). At the time of excavation, this head became known as ‘The Goddess of Butrint’ - and attribution that has been ascribed also to the statue. Given the loss of the statue it is not possible to assess the veracity of this association, or if the body type would rather have been intended for a female head with portrait features.

Dating

Early first century AD. [1]

History of Disappearance

The statue was sent to Italy in 1940 for the Mostra d’Oltremare in Naples; possibly destroyed by allied bombing in 1943.

Last Known State of Conservation

Good. Both lower arms missing: the left broken at height of elbow, the right missing from its elbow attachment.

Notes

1. Bergemann sees a stylistic link between various of the female statues found in the theatre area, including the so-called Large Herculaneum Woman , and consequently proposes an Augustan date for the statue.