1261 (original number), 264 (original number, Casts), and 8-5122 (previous museum number (recataloged from))
Accession number:
Acc.193
Description:
Cast of the Chiaramonti Niobid, fleeing daughter of Niobe, torso. From a marble statue discovered in the Villa of Hadrian at Tivoli. Museu Chiaramonti of the Vatican Palace, Rome. This statue differs noticeably from the Florentine replica, and is certainly truer to the Freek prototype. The Florence statue e.g. has long tight sleeved, very unusual in Greek Art. Its dress flaps back over the feet improbable. The Vatican statue is of finer, taller proportions, and is superb in the treatment of the drapery. Cloak and tunic are made of different fabrics. All the skirt is in large lines, far finer than the small of her rival. The other figures of the Niobid group are twelve: Fr.-W. 1252, a daughter shot in the neck, 12500 a fleeing one, replica of 1261 left hand raised in horror, right hand snatched at fluttering tip of cloak. Next 1249 Fr.-W. the oldest son steps on a rock and supported a wounded sister. 1255 was seenfrom behind, looking backward. 1253 youngest son was coupled with his pedagogue. 1247 wounded son, kneels. 1256 fallen and dying son. Of the other Florentine statues found with the Niobe, and added to the group from other purchases of the Medici with more or less probability of their belonging to the same prototype, the Berlin Museum has no casts. The Wrestlers were once thought to belong to the Niobid group. The Chiaramonti Museo, a foundation of Pius VII, Chiaramonti, 1800-1923 and of E.D. Visconti. The statue passed first into the Villa of Cardinal Ippolito d’Este on the Quirinal, and thence to the Vatican Museum. “The statue in F. is a mean copy, the other is a grand and boldly ycarved work, in which, however, the masterly execution only serves the general impression to be produced.” Fr.-W.
Donor:
Alfred Emerson
Collection place:
Gipsformerei, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany