Bear Sculpture in the Getty Villa, July 2008

Bear
Roman, 100-125 AD
Marble

Inventory # 72.AA.125

Bears, highly prized game in the Roman world, were hunted in the wild, used in staged hunts at civic spectacles, and occasionally kept as pets. Hunting was a sport of the wealthy, and the bear's strength, size, and nobility attested to the courage of the man able to slay it. This life-size bear stands on rocky terrain sculpted to suggest a natural forest habitat.

Text from the Getty Villa museum label.