Dying Niobid from Palazzo Massimo

15 x 16 in 

Mixed media: gauche, colored pencils, white chalk

The Dying Niobid sculpture, located at the National Museum of Rome in Palazzo Massimo, represents one of Niobe's daughters struck down by the gods' arrows as part of the myth of the Niobids. It's a Greek original, likely dating back to the 5th century BC, and was brought to Rome in the Augustan Age. The statue depicts a young woman kneeling, trying to remove an arrow from her back as she falls to the ground. Niobe, boasting about her many children, angered the goddess Leto, who sent her children Apollo and Artemis to kill all of Niobe's offspring.