The Lost Pleiade
Randolph Rogers (American, 1825–1892)
1874–75
- Medium
- Marble
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- H.: 129.5 cm (51 in.)
- Culture
- United States
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. E. S. Stickney
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions nudity. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
In creating this sculpture, Randolph Rogers was inspired by the Roman author Ovid’s poem Fasti, which recounts the legend of the seven sister stars who lived among the constellations. Merope, the youngest sister, married Sisyphus and hid herself in shame because he was mortal. The sculpture depicts the outcast Merope as she seeks her celestial family. With its unclothed torso, The Lost Pleiade is the closest Rogers came to creating a complete nude. Although a conteporary viewers may not have understood the reference to Fasti, the title nonetheless reassured Victorian audiences that this partially nude woman had literary antecedents and was thus not intended as a sensual form.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
