A Marble Figure of the Muse Melpomene, Roman Imperial, circa 1st Century A.D.

standing with her right foot resting on an rocky outcrop, her elbow on her thigh, grasping a tragic mask in her left hand, and wearing a chiton tied with a belt beneath the breasts, himation draped over her left shoulder, baldrick, and fragmentary sword, the ancient head not belonging.

private collection, Rome, 1540s (unrestored)
the sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott, Jr. (1775-1856), London, as of 1833
George Francis Wyndham (1786-1845), 4th Earl of Egremont, Orchard Wyndham, Williton, Somerset, 1838-1845, acquired from the above by 1841
his wife Jane Roberts Wyndham, Countess of Egremont (d. 1876), Orchard Wyndham
by inheritance to William Wyndham (d. 1914), Orchard Wyndham
by descent to George Colville Wyndham (1916-1982), Orchard Wyndham, Williton, Somerset (Sotheby's, London, June 28th, 1965, no. 151, illus., acquired by Fergusson)
Sotheby's, Los Angeles, June 1st-4th, 1981, no. 361D, illus.
private collection, Montecito, California (Christie's, New York, December 6th, 2007, no. 169, illus.

Comte Charles Othon Frédéric Jean-Baptiste de Clarac, Musée de sculpture antique et moderne, Paris, vol. III, 1850, p. 270, pl. 506b, no. 1045a
Konrad Lange, Das Motiv des augestützten Fusses in der antiken Kunst und dessen statuarische Verwendung durch Lysippos, Leipzig, 1879, p. 59
Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 487, no. 2
Adolf Michaelis, "Römische Skizzenbücher nordischer Künstler des XVI Jahrhunderts. III. Das Baseler Skizzenbuch," in Jahrbuch des kaiserlich Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, vol. 7 (1892), Berlin, 1893, p. 88, no. 22c
Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et moderne, vol. I, Paris, 1906, p. 264, no. 5
Georg Lippold, "Musengruppen," in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung, 1918, p. 90
Georg Lippold, Die griechische Plastik, 1950, p. 295, note 18
Bernhard Neutsch, "Weibliche Gewandstatue im Römischen Kunsthandel," in Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Römische Abteilung, vol. 63, 1956, p. 50, note 15
Carl van de Velde, "A Roman Sketchbook of Frans Floris," Master Drawings, vol. 7, no. 3, Autumn 1968, p. 271 (folio 21, verso), pl. 10 b (1540s drawings of front an back of present statue in its unrestored state)
Katja Marina Türr, Eine Musengruppe Hadrianischer Zeit, Berlin, 1971, p. 10, note 30
Boletín del Seminario de Estudios de Arte y Arqueologia, vol. 43, 1977, p. 339
Katherine Wyndham and Richard Haslam, "Orchard Wyndham, Somerset-II. The Home of Mrs. Wyndham," Country Life, March 28, 1985, p. 819
L. Faedo, "Mousa, Mousai," in Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae, vol. VII, Zurich and Munich, 1994, p. 996, no. 200a
Robert Cohon, "New Evidence for Hesiod and the Naming and Ordering of Muses in Hellenistic and Classical Art, Boreas. Münstersche Beiträge zur Archäologie, vol. 32, 2009, p. 29
Arachne, no. 51317

Head is ancient but not belonging, nose restored in painted plaster, lower lip in marble, proper right foot, proper left hand, and lower end of mask restored in marble, proper right forearm and top end of sword and scabbard formerly restored in marble, surface weathered in areas, minor chips and abrasions including on back, which is somewhat more schematically carved than front.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Apart from a small fragment found at Corinth (F.P. Johnson, Corinth, vol. IX, 1931, p. 24, no. 15) the present figure is one of only two known Roman copies of a now lost Hellenistic original. The other example was once on the European art market around the end of WWI (Lippold, op. cit., 1918, pp. 89-90, figs. 5-6); its current whereabouts are unknown. In his typology of Muses Lucia Faedo (op. cit. , 1994, p. 996) calls the original Hellenistic statuary type the "Melpomene Westmacott" after the present statue, but mistakenly conflates the latter with the other, now lost example published by Lippold in 1918.

The first visual record of the present figure, and a tantalizing indication of its early provenance, comes from the copy of a drawing by Flemish painter Frans Floris (1517-1570) now preserved in Basel, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung, Kupferstichkabinett (van de Velde, op. cit., 1969, pl. 10b). Frans Floris of Antwerp visited Rome sometime between 1540 and 1547, when he executed the original of the Basel drawing as part of a larger sketchbook. Unlike many captions in this sketchbook, which give the location or ownership of the marbles represented, the caption in this drawing merely states "antygo," one of the several words Floris used to indicate that his subject was an antique. In the 1540s the present sculpture could have been part of one of a handful of collections of antiquities displayed in the gardens of wealthy Roman ecclesiastics, such as Cardinals Cesi, d'Este, and Carpi (see W. Stenhouse, "Visitors, Display, and Reception in the antiquity Collections of Late Renaissance Rome,' Renaissance Quarterly, vol. 58, 2005, pp. 397-434).

The present figure was next recorded almost 300 years later, in 1833, when the Comte de Clarac, a  French antiquarian, visited the London house of the sculptor Sir Richard Westmacott, and saw it there together with several other ancient marbles. Clarac had several of the sculptures drawn and later engraved for his monumental Musee de sculpture, including a seated statue of Zeus now in the Getty Museum (C. Vermeule, The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, vol. 2, 1975, pp. 99-108). By then the statue of Melpomene had been restored, most likely in Rome (See Clarac, op. cit., 1850, pl. 506b; Reinach, op. cit, p. 264). In 1882, based on the Clarac engravings, Michaelis published a list of the Westmacott statues, "with regards to the whereabouts of which," he writes, "I have no information to give" (op. cit., p. 486). All later references to the Westmacott Melpomene in scholarly literature mention it as "verschollen," or lost, until its sale at public auction in 1965.

In a 26 May 1841 letter written to the Duke of Newcastle Westmacott writes of the sale of some of his marbles to the 4th Earl of Egremont, George Francis Wyndham, for his country house of Orchard Wyndham in Somerset (Newcastle Papers, NCC7.320a, University of Nottingham; mentioned by Marie Busco, Sir Richard Westmacott, Sculptor, New York, 1994, p. 19, note 94). The 4th Earl died only four years later in 1845, but the statues, including the figures of Zeus and Melpomene, stayed in the family at Orchard Wyndham for another 120 years before they were sold at Sotheby's in 1965.

Image four by Frans Floris, sketch of lot 47 prior to restoration, pen and brown ink and brown wash, 1540s; Kunstmuseum Basel, Kupferstichkabinett inv. No. U:IV:22 (Photograph: Kunstmuseum Basel, Martin P. Bühler).