Head from a Reversed Copy of the Skopasian Meleager, after a Greek original c. 340 BC

31 Head from a Reversed Copy of the Skopasian Meleager The surfaces are rough. Nose, lips, and end of the lower part of the chin are missing. The head is turned and tilted very slightly to its right. The condition of the surfaces contributes to the head's air of wildness when compared with that of the Forbes-Webster statue of Meleager (1926.48). The pronounced carving in the hair, around the eyes, and between the lips add to this overall appearance. Since the copy of the Meleager attributed to Skopas in the Berlin Museum was found in the same Roman villa at Santa Marinella as the Forbes-Webster copy, it is understandable that an Antonine decorator or collector would go one step further and commission a copy in mirror reversal. This was done for other popular copies after famous statues of the fourth century BC, notably the Weary Herakles after Lysippos (Vermeule, C., 1980 pp. 328-329). Such pairs of statues were set around pools in gymnasia, in the niches of baths (such as the Roman bath at Perge), or in the scene buildings of large Roman theaters in the tradition of the structure named for Herodes Atticus in Athens. Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer