Bactrian Style Lapis Lazuli Bead Necklace String

With high-relief scene of a horse running in a landscape beneath the moon. 49 grams, 57 x 41 mm



Ex Paris gallery, 1980-1990. From a Parisian collection. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Iron flat-section shaft with three tiered cross-bars, the two lowest each with five iron lamp-bowls to the forward face; above, a U-shaped bar with a lamp bowl at each upper end; top of the shaft developing to an anthropomorphic torso with ellipsoid head and two narrow arms raised vertically; chain around the neck with hand-forged extinguishing spoon; mounted on a square base; Dogon, Mali, workmanship. 6.25 kg total, 132 cm including stand



From the private collection of Dr Hans-Joachim Koloss, Berlin, Germany, 1975-2002. Gorny & Mosch, Munich, Germany, auction 279, no.410. Accompanied by a copy of the Gorny & Mosch invoice and illustrated catalogue listing. Accompanied by a copy of the German cultural export licence. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

The figure is probably a Nommo a primordial ancestral spirit in Dogon cosmogony. A Nommo is usually considered to be amphibious, hermaphroditic and fish-like depicted in Dogon art with a humanoid upper torso, and a fish-like lower torso and tail.

Depicting nimbate Mary Theotokos with veiled head and wearing a red maphorion mantle over a dark blue robe with gold cuffs, inclined towards the infant Jesus supported by her left hand, wearing a bright red mantle and a blue tunic highlighted with gold, his left arm holding a roll and the right hand in a gesture of blessing; white field, tempera on wood, Smolenskaya type. 1.12 kg, 32 x 26 cm



Acquired from Portobello Road, London, circa 2000. Property of a London, UK, gentleman collector. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

The model for the icon, painted in 16th century style, is the one of the Mother of God of Smolensk, associated with the Byzantine icon of the Hodegetria ('She who shows the ways). According to the legend, the icon of Smolensk received the name after healing two blind men. The original icon of Smolensk was a gift of the Roman Emperor Constantine Monomachus to her daughter Anna when she married the Russian Prince Vsevolod. Later Anna presented the icon to his son Vladimir who put it in the Vladimir Cathedral.