White Carrara Marble Bust of a Woman attributed to Hiram Powers, 1860s

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White Carrara Marble Bust of a Woman 1860s - Attributed to Hiram Powers This refined marble bust depicts a young … Read more White Carrara Marble Bust of a Woman 1860s - Attributed to Hiram Powers This refined marble bust depicts a young woman with an idealized, almost timeless beauty, in keeping with the neoclassical taste that dominated much of nineteenth-century sculpture. The face is calm and introspective, the features delicately softened, the gaze lowered or inward-looking, as if the figure were suspended between portrait and allegory. The treatment of the hair, gathered and modelled in flowing, controlled waves, recalls the classical tradition, while the purity of the marble gives the figure a quiet, contemplative presence. The drapery, carved with restraint and elegance, suggests rather than describes the body beneath, reinforcing the sense of modesty and moral grace typical of neoclassical sculpture. The work reflects the artistic world of Hiram Powers (1805–1873), one of the most celebrated American sculptors of the nineteenth century. Powers spent much of his career in Italy, particularly in Florence, where American and European patrons came to his studio to commission portraits, ideal busts and allegorical figures. His art combined classical beauty with a more modern emotional sensitivity, giving his marble figures both formal dignity and psychological depth. Powers is best known for The Greek Slave, one of the most famous sculptures of the nineteenth century, a work that became an international symbol of suffering, moral beauty and the debate around slavery. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York preserves and documents several works connected to Powers, including sculptures such as Andrew Jackson, George Washington, Fisher Boy, America and California, as well as objects and images related to the fame of The Greek Slave. The Met describes Powers as one of the most influential and best-known American sculptors of his century, internationally recognized for his neoclassical marbles. This bust, with its serene expression, noble profile and refined handling of marble, belongs to that same cultural and artistic atmosphere: a world in which sculpture was not merely a likeness, but a meditation on beauty, virtue and the ideal human form. See less