Triad of Grace

Three nude female figures turning in space, an ancient Roman marble torso of a Nymph at the center, her legs crossed and her right arm raised in an ecstatic pose, the large hand of a male embraces her, pressing the folds of her garment against her shoulder. Mirrored to the right and left of the Nymph are two statues of Aphrodite, each gracefully bending, a favored pose of skillful Greek sculptors of the Hellenistic age and later copied by Roman artists. The two statues mimic each other in action, leaning and turning to their right, perhaps reaching down to unfasten a sandal in preparation for the bath. The pose accentuates the waist with its folds of flesh. The statue on the left retains her head, while the other two are lost to time. Of Greek deities, only Nymphs or Aphrodite were typically shown fully nude.  Ancient sculptors depicting them were free to explore the female form in a variety of postures, emphasizing the sensuous shape and curves of the nude female form. Each statue is a testament to the skill of now anonymous Classical sculptors whose artistic achievements are evident to us in the surviving fragments of their master works.

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