LS 484 The sleeping Ariadne h. cm. 88

LS 484 The sleeping Ariadne h. cm. 88

In our collection of classical statues there is the statue depicting Sleeping Ariadne, made of antique patinated white resin, suitable only for indoor environments.

The statue of Sleeping Ariadne was purchased by Pope Julius II (1503-1513) in 1512 for the Courtyard of the Statues, where it was adapted to decorate a fountain. After being moved several times, in 1779 it was given a permanent location, in the Pio Clementino Museum in the Vatican. Since the statue has a bracelet in the shape of a snake, it was believed that it was Cleopatra, who killed herself with the bite of an asp. It was Ennio Quirino Visconti who finally recognized the statue as Ariadne in the late 1700s. Ariadne was the daughter of King Minos of Crete who, after helping Theseus defeat the Minotaur and escape the Labyrinth, was abandoned by the ungrateful man while she lay asleep on the island of Naxos; she was awakened by the arrival of Dionysus, who married her. The sculpture is a copy of a 2nd century BC original from the Pergamon school and had other replicas in Roman times.