A NEAPOLITAN WHITE MARBLE BUST OF PSYCHE OF CAPUA

The original sculpture dating from the first century B.C. and now housed in the National Museum, Naples was found badly damaged in the amphitheatre at Capua. The sculpture although commonly known as Psyche of Capua more likely depicts Aphrodite. Earlier believed to be by Praxiteles it is rather a copy after a work by Scopas, having characteristic sloping shoulders, globe-shaped breasts, peculiar mouth and dilated nostrils, the ear slanting back with the lobe close to the head. The figure would have originally leaned it's weight on the right leg and drew the drapery, which covered the lower part of the body, over the left shoulder with the left hand. The head, turned to the right and bent down, suggests the figure may have been part of a group, perhaps with Eros holding a mirror.