Statuette of a youth in Egyptian clothing,

ca. 140–190 CE

The clothing of each of these statuettes points to different ways of depicting bodies. In one instance, a young boy wears a traditional Egyptian shendyt, a kilt-like garment worn by members of all social classes that allowed for easy movement and could be made of a variety of fabrics. It reveals much of the boy’s form and emphasizes his youthful body. This display stands in stark contrast to the statuette of a boy wearing a himation, a large, heavy piece of fabric intended to be wrapped around the body that Greek men and woman wore over a lighter, longer robe called a chiton. While the himation is Greek in origin and the shendyt Egyptian, their use in these Roman statuettes illustrates some of the ways the Romans incorporated other cultural styles into their visual vocabulary.