The Zeus of Otricoli Mini Wood Sculpture

The Zeus of Otricoli is an Ancient Roman bust found in Otricoli in 1775 during the excavation financed by Pope Pius VI. It is on display in the Sala Rotonda of the Pio-Clementine Vatican Museum.

The bust is presumed to be a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original. While some attributed the bust as a copy of the statue of Phidias at Olympia, numismatic reproductions of that famous statue would suggest otherwise. It appears to be more likely from subsequent centuries.

This work is one of the celebrated Canova Casts, which were made in Rome under the supervision of Antonio Canova and presented to the museum 200 years ago. This particular cast is taken from a Roman bust of Jupiter Olympus which had been discovered in 1775 at Otricoli, Italy during excavations funded by Pope Pius VI (1717-1799). It is interesting to note that it is under this pontiff and one Napoleon Bonaparte that the Treaty of Tolentino was signed on 19 February 1797. The terms of the treaty allowed for the seizing of antiquities, including The Jove of Otricoli, which was only reversed in 1815 and led to the creation of the Canova Casts.