The Herculaneum Women: History, Context, Identities. (Getty Publications, J. Paul Getty Museum and Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden)

About 1710, three life-size marble statues of women were found near Portici on the Bay of Naples. This discovery led to further exploration of the site, which was soon identified as the ancient city of Herculaneum, one of the towns buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79. The statues became famous throughout Europe as the “Herculaneum Women.” First brought to Vienna, they have been in the Antiquities Collection in Dresden since 1736. This book presents for the first time in any language the comprehensive story of these famous statues, including their discovery, archaeological context, art history, interpretation—an ongoing debate—and the impact of the Greek statuary types on representations of Roman women throughout the Mediterranean. No other models of the draped female body were used more often in Roman sculpture to carry individual portraits, including those of empresses, than the Large and Small Herculaneum Women.