Flora torso

“Under the appearences of Flora is naturally portrayed in this marble a woman distinguished by the greatness of her birth […]. The drapery is noble, rich and well conducted. The head is sculpted with delicacy, and with so much study is the hair”. This words belong to Pietro Vitali, a well-known antique dealer of the 19th century; he admired the artifact in the Torlonia Museum – housed in the homonymouys palace – located in Piazza Venezia in Rome.

Our statue, in fact, had a very fascinating as well as tormented story. Probably a work of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi’s studio, a Roman sculptor and restorer from the 18th century, after his death the statue will be taken into custody from Vincenzo Pacetti, becoming the first nucleus of the already mentioned Torlonia Museum. Later, the precious object will lose tracks and the last person to attest its presence in Rome will be Pietro Vitali, at least until its recent “discovery” in the entrance hall of the Accorsi-Ometto Museum.

The statue, a Renaissance fake, presents a wrong combination between the head (2nd century AD) and the bust (3rd century AD) cut at the height of the belt (the visible fracture on the neck proves the original distinction between the parts). In Ancient Rome, only the woman of the imperial family were trandsetteres: in fact, we find the same clothing and the same hairstyle – long braids wrapped in a turban on the nape and high scaffolding of false curls on the forehead – in many portraits of court ladies from the time of Trajan (98-117 AD) and that of his successor Adrian (117-138 AD).

The bouquet of flowers at the height of the breast and the right hand with a little bouquet are certainly a later addition, responding to a late-Rococò taste.