3-100-823 - "Royal Academy of Arts, London; photographer: Paul Highnam"/Heritage Images

Statue of a poet, possibly Menander (Roman copy of lost Greek original), early 19th century. This cast is of a Roman version of a Greek bronze dating from the 3rd century BCE (in the Vatican Museums, Rome). The bronze was found between 1585-1590 on the Viminal, near S. Lorenzo in Panisperna, along with a statue of the poet Poseidippus (c316- c250 BCE). It is often said that the statue depicts the Greek poet Menander, a prolific writer of the "New Comedy". Having produced his first comedy Orge in 321 BCE he went on to write over a hundred others, the majority of which or either lost or exist as fragments. This cast is depicted in George Scharf's watercolour 'Entrance Hall of the Royal Academy, Somerset House' (1836, British Museum).