The admiration for the Greek and Hellenistic world which took hold in Rome and Italy in the Second Century BCE brought the opulence of the Middle East and Greece into the homes and villas of the emerging classes. Particularly during the following century, this led towards a new figurative language characterized by a combination of elements from different provenances. The archaic rigidity of Sixth Century BCE Greek art was thus softened and contaminated by other stylistic models, as in the Apollo from the House of Iulius Polibius or the herm of Priapus, a deity symbolising vitality and procreation.
During the Augustan era, this new style acquired new content. The archaicised representations of the deities clearly visible in the terracotta slabs from the Palatine Hill, closely associated with the figure of the Princeps, served to underline the sacrality of the gods and the mythological scenes. At the same time the archaic elements themselves, the frontal attitude of the figures, the elaborate hairstyles and the thick and orderly folds of the clothing are all part of a cleverly-ordained overall decorative design – a learned system of quotations. The great Fifth Century masterpieces of Greek art were now displayed in homes alongside genre subjects such as the seasonal genius on display here, or rich banqueting services which could include exceptional collector’s pieces.