This object embodies the importance of Italy's ancient past as a spur to Renaissance artists and patrons. The starting point was a fragment of an ancient draped torso, made of calcite crystal. In a collaboration across time, an unknown sixteenth-century master completed the figure by adding a lower body and base of marble, and gilt bronze head and hands to make a statuette of the ancient Roman Emperor Hadrian. A precious relic of the past, the ancient torso inspired the creative vision of the modern artist.

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