Cast of neo-attic relief showing a woman with a bull

From: Uffizi Gallery (Florence)

RA Collection: Art

The cast is of part of a marble relief, now in the Uffizi. It shows a woman bracing herself against the forward thrust of a bull which she is leading to a sacrifice. The composition, which is known in other Roman reliefs, derives from the parapet of the Temple of Athena Nike in Athens, c. 420-406 BC, and is called “neo-attic” by modern scholars. However, between the sixteenth and early nineteenth century this relief was misunderstood as a visualization of Europa and the bull.

The Uffizi relief was restored by Cavaceppi. The left foot of the left figure and the edge of its drapery as well as the left horn of the bull are restorations. The head of the right figure (not preserved in this cast) was also restoration.