Minerva Giustiniani or Athena Giustiniani

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A local fine dining restaurant called "Minerva's" proudly features a beautiful 100-year-old plaster copy of its namesake, Minerva herself. I remembered her from my past visits and managed to get permission from the management to capture her photographically and use her as a model. As I snapped photos of Minerva, I stumbled upon an obscure label hidden in plain sight: Hennecke Statuary of Milwaukee, WI - the company responsible for creating this magnificent plaster work. A quick online search revealed a digital copy of their catalog, including the price page specifically designed for this particular cast. Over the years, Minerva's delicate figure has been slightly damaged, with chips on her right hand and the sphinx crest on her helmet head. But rather than detracting from her beauty, these imperfections add character to an already stunning work of art. As I shot photos of Minerva, she presented me with another challenge: low lighting conditions due to the dim atmosphere commonly found in restaurants like Minerva's. To mitigate this, I utilized a tripod to steady my shots. Although she was surprisingly heavy and difficult to maneuver, I successfully moved her from her initial perch near expensive wines on the stairwell to a nearby table where more sufficient lighting awaited. Regrettably, while Minerva's front face turned out nicely, her back side remained less satisfactory, necessitating nearly two hours of photography time. After consuming most of my battery power and the restaurant beginning its preparation for Friday evening crowds, I unfortunately left without fully capturing Minerva to my liking. Nonetheless, my goal is to revisit Minerva soon with renewed hopes of achieving better results. Throughout her body, you can see minor gaps, largely confined to undercuts and crevices beneath the left arm and around the top of her figure. Given these minor flaws, I'm eager to attempt capturing more high-quality photographs of Minerva once again. For additional information regarding Minerva's original counterpart, you may visit the following Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena_Giustiniani