A Roman Marble Figure of the Artemis of Ephesus, circa 2nd Century A.D., with 17th/18th Century Restorations

perhaps Leonardo Agostini (1593-1676), Rome, prior to 1657

Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke (1656-1733), Wilton House, Wiltshire

Sidney Herbert, 16th Earl of Pembroke (1906-1969), Wilton House, Wiltshire, by descent from the above (Christie’s, July 3rd, 1961, no. 132)

Peter Glenville (1913-1996) and Hardy William Smith, New York (1916-2001), probably acquired at the above sale

American private collection, by descent from H. W. Smith

by descent to the present owner

Documented

undated photograph at Wilton House (Iconographic Database, Warburg Institute, London: https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/object-wpc-wid-bigx)

photograph published in The Times of London, June 1961 (https://historicengland.org.uk/images-books/photos/englands-places/card/420446 and Getty Images)

photograph of interior of Peter Glenville's apartment in New York, decorated by Geoffrey Bennison in the early 1960s (Instagram)

Published

perhaps Claude-François Ménestrier, Symbolica Dianae Ephesiae, 1657, illus. p. 72; 1688 ed., p. 60; captioned "apud Leonar. Augustinum" (https://archive.org/details/symbolicadianaee00mene/page/60/mode/1up)

Cary Creed, The Marble Antiquities, The Right Hon. The Earl of Pembroke's, at Wilton, [..], 1731, pl. 45 (https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008756591/page/n94/mode/1up)

Richard Cowdry, A Description of the Pictures, Statues, [...] at the Earl of Pembroke’s House at Wilton, London, 1751, p. 52

James Kennedy, A Description of the Antiquities and Curiosities in Wilton-House, Salisbury, 1769, p. 55

George Richardson, Aedes Pembrochianae or a Critical Account of the Statues, Bustos, Relievos [...] at Wilton-House, London, 1774, p. 53

Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 690, no. 95; 

Hermann Thiersch, Artemis Ephesia. Eine archäologische Untersuchung, vol. 1, Katalog der erhaltenen Denkmäler, Berlin, 1935, p. 54f., no. 38, pl. 24,2

Robert Fleischer, "Artemis Ephesia," in: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. 2, Zürich, 1984, p. 761, no. 92

Peter Stewart, A Catalogue of the Sculpture Collection at Wilton House, Oxford, 2020, p. 402, no. 12

Hermann Thiersch (op. cit., p. 55) identifies the present statue with the one illustrated by Ménestrier in 1657 and captioned by him as being in the collection of Leonardo Agostini, gem scholar and antiquario to Cardinal Francesco Barberini. Ménestrier's engraved figure shows a different head and one less row of animal protomes than the present figure, perhaps representing an earlier phase of restoration.

The temple of Artemis at Ephesus was hailed as one of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world. The Greeks of Ephesus worshipped a very particular incarnation of Artemis in which she assumed the role of a great mother goddess, more akin to Anatolian deities than to her typical role as a virgin deity of the hunt. Much scholarly debate has gone into trying to identify the nature of the nodes represented on her cult statue. Although some scholars believe them to be female breasts, and others bull testes, all agree that they stand as a symbol of fertility.

The Artemis of Ephesus was reproduced in all media well into the Roman era. The most noteworthy reproductions are an over-lifesize marble statue found at Ephesus (Fleischer op. cit., p. 760, no. 73, pl. 570), and an under-lifesize alabaster statue from the Farnese collection (Fleischer op. cit., p. 759, no. 49, pl. 567; C. Gasparri, ed., Le sculture Farnese, vol. 1, 2009, pp. 113ff., no. 50, pl. 96).