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Excavations at the site of Moregine, south of Pompeii, have uncovered an intriguing building complex, perhaps a villa, perhaps an inn or the headquarters of a business. Frescoed on the walls of one of its dining rooms are images of the god Apollo, patron of the liberal arts, flanked by the muses. Their presence would have reminded guests of the pleasures of intellectual and creative conversation, the ideal at any Roman banquet.
Many Romans living near the Bay of Naples were avid art collectors who prized copies after Greek “old masters.” So many versions of The Three Graces survive that they must stem from a famous prototype, now lost. The portrait of an athlete from the Villa dei Papiri near Herculaneum echoes a fourth-century BC sculpture by Lysippos, while the statue of a youth from a Pompeian house harks back to Polykleitos’ Doryphoros (Spearbearer) of c. 440 BC.
The owners of such works must have taken pride in possessing sculptures that recall two of the most renowned artists of ancient Greece.
Some of the finest works of art were carved in imported Greek marble; others were ordered from Greece or created by Greek artists who had moved to the Bay of Naples, attracted by the opportunities afforded by the wealthy patrons there. But most collectors would have relied on local artists familiar with Greek models. The works of art they commissioned between the first century BC and the first century AD, either for their own collections or for public display, were made in styles from various periods.
A statue of Aphrodite from Puteoli reflects the influence of classical Greek art of the later 5th century BC in her remote expression and the virtuoso handling of her garment, which falls in delicate, rippling folds. Like the marble female torso from the same site, the figure’s transparent drapery clings to her body, revealing a clear understanding of human anatomy. A more severe bronze statue of a young woman from the Villa dei Papiri, with heavy drapery hanging in broad vertical folds, takes inspiration from an earlier phase in the development of the classical style. 
Aphrodite, Rione Terra at Puteoli, probably early 1st century AD, marble, Museo Archeologico dei Campi Flegrei
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