Portrait of Cleopatra

A series of sculptures with various provenances bears witness to two phenomena very wide-spread in Ancient Rome: the habit of collecting antiques and the diffusion of Greek models through copies of the original sculpture.
Next to faithful copies of the most famous originals of Greek art, obtained using moulds and instruments of precise measurement, works which are rather re-elaborations of the models, made to suit the tastes of the Roman purchasers and the cultural climate of the era.