Jupiter, called the Jupiter of Smyrna
Unknown · Second century AD (?)
A bearded god nearly three metres tall stands with a mantle around his hips and over one shoulder, long wavy locks framed by a rolled fillet, a tree trunk supporting his leg. The thunderbolt in his raised hand names him Jupiter, but that hand, the whole right arm and shoulder, the feet and the base are the work of Pierre Granier, who restored the statue between 1680 and 1687, and some scholars think the ancient figure may rather have been Asclepius. Look at the two dark veins running across the face and torso: erosion had hollowed them out, and they were once plugged with lead, filling removed only in 2003.
The statue was found at Smyrna, present-day Izmir, and was sent to Louis the Fourteenth in 1680 as a diplomatic gift from the Levant. Restored and recut above the ankles to fit new supports, it was set up in the park of Versailles, where the lead plugs protected the marble outdoors. Seized with the royal collections in the Revolution, it entered the Louvre in 1798.
Did You Know? Two veins across the god's face were stuffed with lead for the gardens of Versailles and were only unplugged in 2003.
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