“Sculptural Group of a Seated Poet and Sirens,” Greek (Tarentum, South Italy), 350-300 B.C., terra cotta with white slip and polychromy
Time has weathered the formerly extravagant color on this gorgeous group of nearly life-size terracotta figures — a pair of Sirens, creatures part bird and part woman, and a male musician (his lyre is missing). But it hasn’t lessened the sculptures’ delicate beauty, which may have been made for a tomb. Is that Orpheus flanked by the mythological creatures who lure sailors to their destruction? No one knows for sure.