Persephone also convinced Hades to allow the hero Protesilaus to return to the world of the living for a limited period of time to see his wife. [91] The Rape of Persephone, a painting in the Macedonian Tomb I in Vergina (Aegae), [7] dating from the mid 4th century BC. This in situ mural is mostly indistinguishable, other than the figures of Hades and Persephone themselves on a chariot. [8]

Avery, Charles (1997). Bernini: Genius of the Baroque. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780500286333. This piece portrays a moment from the myth ofPluto and Proserpina (also known as Proserpine), a tale present in both Metamorphoses by Ovid, a Roman poet from the 1st century CE, and De raptu Proserpinae, a piece written 400 years later by the Latin writer Claudian. The elevated position of Proserpina is reminiscent of both Giambologna's Abduction of a Sabine Woman and his Hercules and Antaeus. In the Abduction of the Sabine woman, the victim is held aloft as she flings her arms out and looks away in despair. [19] Similarly, in the other sculpture, Hercules lifts Antaeus up as Antaeus pushes violently against his head. [20] Both sculptures are similar to how Proserpina attempts to escape Pluto's grasp, but the Abduction of a Sabine Woman is intended to be viewed from many angles, a key difference from the Rape of Proserpina, which has one predominant perspective. [19]In 1750, The Rape of Proserpina was moved to the Palazzo Grande, but in the 19th century, the sculpture had returned to the Villa Ludovisi. Between 1895 and 1890, a part of the villa was destroyed, and the sculpture was placed at the foot of the grand staircase of the Palazzo Piombino. Finally, in 1908, the sculpture was bought by the Italian government and returned to the Galleria Borghese, where it was placed in the centre of the Salone degli Imperatori, a room in the museum. The original pedestal, at one point destroyed, has been replaced by a simple white marble base sculpted in 1911 by Pietro Fortunati. [33] During the First World War, the sculpture was protected by a box and sandbags to prevent damage. [34] Critical reaction [ edit ] Detail of Pluto's hair and beard During his career Bernini had no shortage of commissions, much to the annoyance of other artists and imitators. He was one of the most admired and sought-after of artists, with the highest of reputations. Italian and French contemporaries praised the artist with detailed biographies, sure of the genius in their midst. The Rape of Persephone, by Pinturicchio, in the vault of the Piccolomini Library in the Duomo, Siena From the 7th century BC onwards the old temples that were made of timber were gradually replaced by stone-built structures adorned with architectural sculptures, such as the reliefs from the temple of Athena at Mycenae (no 2869, Room 7). Over the same time period, the earlier wooden statues (which were in effect plank-shaped images, called xoana) were also substituted by their stone counterparts, which nonetheless, preserved the traditionally stiff and austere shape, such as the statue of Artemis dedicated by Nikandre of Naxos (“Dedication of Nikandre”) to the temple of Apollo on Delos (no 1, Room 7). The same rigid pose is encountered on smaller sculptures depicting the human figure, such as those made of ivory (no 776, Room 7) and also on the funerary (grave) monuments, such as the monument of the brothers Dermys and Kit(t)ylos, portrayed embracing each other tightly, that had been installed over their grave at Tanagra in Boeotia by their father Amphalkes (no 56, Room 8). Similarly stiff is the pose of the female figures that mourn a deceased woman over her bier illustrated on the large clay amphora that also served as grave marker (sema) at the cemetery of the Kerameikos in a different rendering of the dead body of an eminent person (no A804, Room 7).

Several of the loans have been conserved by the Getty's Antiquities Conservation department. Treatment of a polychrome bust of Persephone (at left) uncovered a painted scene of dancing women decorating her garment. Melindia or Melinoia (meli, "honey"), as the consort of Hades, in Hermione. (Compare Hecate, Melinoë) [34]The epithets of Persephone reveal her double function as chthonic and vegetation goddess. The surnames given to her by the poets refer to her role as queen of the lower world and the dead and to the power that shoots forth and withdraws into the earth. Her common name as a vegetation goddess is Kore, and in Arcadia she was worshipped under the title Despoina, "the mistress", a very old chthonic divinity. [18] Günther Zuntz considers "Persephone" and "Kore" as distinct deities and writes that "no farmer prayed for corn to Persephone; no mourner thought of the dead as being with Kore." Ancient Greek writers were however not as consistent as Zuntz claims. [19] Goddess of spring and nature [ edit ] Describing the work as “stunning,” Higgs told the Guardian, “It is a beautiful, three-quarter-length statue, very well preserved with just a few fingers missing. It is technically brilliant in the way it has been carved, with very sharp details, and the face is very well preserved.”