Draped Goddess, called Juno or Providence
Unknown · Second century AD (authenticity debated)
A tall woman wrapped in a tunic and a mantle draped over it stands more than two metres high, her hair parted in bands and gathered into a bun under a diadem decorated with a flower and scrolls. The body follows the type of the Kore, the young draped goddess of Greek art, and the diadem gave rise to the name Juno, while an older tradition called her Providence. Look at the neck: the head and the body do not belong together. The head was once mounted on another statue in the museum, and its marriage to this body is a modern arrangement, one of many such composites made when collectors wanted complete figures.
The nose, lips, some locks of hair, the upper chest, the right shoulder and arm, the left forearm and the fronts of the feet are all restorations in marble, with plaster filling the breaks. Scholars have even questioned whether the statue is ancient at all, though it is generally placed in the second century. It entered the Louvre in the revolutionary seizures and was restored again in 2004.
Did You Know? The head once sat on a different statue in the same museum before being moved to this body.
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