Statue of Seated Minerva

This statue represents the goddess Minerva, dressed in a chiton and himation which covers her head. The face and the neck, now lost, have been substituted by a plaster cast of the Athena Carpegna. The aegis with the gorgoneoin on her breast have enabled the goddess to be identified as Athena, the Roman Minerva, generally depicted in the guise of a helmeted female warrior. Its remarkable size suggests that this was a cult image, although a hypothesis remains linking it to the temple of Minerva on the Aventine. The sculpture bears the hallmarks of the second half of the 5th century B.C. and the use of different materials links it to the tradition of Greek cult statues in gold and ivory made by Phidias. Augustan period