A graceful female torso from the 4th century B.C., a reduced-scale replica.
On display at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
A “torso” (Italian for “tree stump”) refers to an ancient work of art
that is either partially damaged—usually with missing limbs—or not fully preserved, or was intentionally left unfinished (a term that has only been in common use since modern times, beginning with Auguste Rodin). Today, the term is also used figuratively to refer to an unfinished scholarly work or to denote a fragment.
