LOT 0075

Bronze Batillum Depicting a Reclining Banqueteer with Skyphos and Rhyton

PARTHIAN, 3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.

10 in. (1.58 kg, 25 cm).

Comprising a square base with a raised border and supported by four stub feet, each originally surmounted by poppy-head finials (some absent); a hollow-formed figure of a banqueteer reclining elegantly with his weight resting on his left elbow, his right leg drawn up beneath the folds of a finely pleated robe; in his right hand, a ram’s head rhyton and his left hand cradling a skyphos; his bearded head with a laurel wreath.

Private New York collection, formed in the 1960s.
Acquired on the North American art market, 1990s.
with Cahn Auktionen AG, Basel, Switzerland, 13 November 2015, no.84 (CHF 18,000).

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12379-226873.

Cf. the Getty Museum, accession number 96.AC.255, for a 3rd century BC batillum decorated with a banqueteer; see also Hanfmann, G.M.A, Detweiler, A.H., ‘Report on the first Campaign on Sardis’ in Türk Arkeoloji Dergisi, Sayi: IX-1, Ankara, 1959, pp.14-19; Garnsey, P., Food and Society in Classical Antiquity, Cambridge, 1999, for discussion on Greek and Roman feasting customs.

The composition reflects the iconography of elite banquet culture in the ancient world, capturing both refinement and ritual in a single expressive figure. The Greek 'συμπόσιον' 'symposium' was the later part of a formal banquet which took place after the food had been consumed, when the serving of strong drink was accompanied by music, dancing, poetic composition or recital or earnest conversation. The custom has similarities with the Roman convivium and with the customs of many Mediterranean and Western Asiatic people. The Parthian Empire was culturally diverse and included many Hellenic groups; the Arsacid court adopted a range of aspects of contemporary Greek culture, among them Greek military structures and the Greek language as a lingua franca alongside the Parthian (Iranian) language and Aramaic.