Athena known as the Pallas of Velletri
In 1797 Vicenzo Pacetti, an art restorer, discovered a huge statue, more than three meters tall, in the ruins of a Roman villa near Velletri, a small Italian town whose name has now become synonymous with the copies of this style of statue. The helmet and aegis (a breastplate edged with serpents and with the head of the Gorgon Medusa fixed in the center) indicate that the statue represents the goddess Athena-known by the Romans as Pallas or Minerva. The statue was purchased by the French commissioners of the Directoire and taken to Rome before being confiscated by Neapolitan troops in 1798 and moved to the royal collections in Naples. On 28 March 1798, the work was handed over to France by the Treaty of Florence. It has been on display in the Louvre since December 1803.
Size: 2718px × 4120px
Location: Louvre Museum, Paris, France
Photo credit: © Carlo Bollo / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 5th, ancient, antiquity, athena, bc, century, classical, free-standing, greek, italy, late, louvre, marble, museum, period, roman, ruins, sculpture, statue, style, velletri, villa
