Rectangular in plan with ornament to all four faces; Side A: facing bust in a stepped square recess, with band of textured short hair, broad face with fleshy features, below this a severe undercut with median D-section column supporting the frame formed as openwork vine-leaves with couchant stag and fawn flanked by two panels of flowering creepers; Side B: facing female bust with band of straight hair, some remains of raised border, deep recessed vertical slot below; Side C: upper panel largely absent, undercut with D-section column of vine-leaves and bunch of grapes flanked by scrollwork; Side D: facing female bust with band of straight hair, remains of fluted border to one side, deep recessed vertical slot below; upper face with one large drilled socket and two smaller; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

PROVENANCE:
Ex UK art market.
Acquired London in 2009.
Ex central London gallery.

Accompanied by an academic report by Prof. Neritan Ceka.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.202057.

LITERATURE:
See Mango, C., Antique Statuary and the Byzantine Beholder, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 17, 1963, pp.53-75; Beckwith, J., Early Christian and Byzantine Art, London, 1979.

FOOTNOTES:
The treatment of the hair on portraits with the hair combed straight and raised on the forehead, covering the ears, refers to the portraits of sculptures, mosaics, coins, or ivory plaques of Justinian period (527-568 A.D.) and namely to the portrait of Byzantine Empress Theodora (500-548 A.D.) in the Musei del Castello Sforzesco, Milan, Italy. The decorative sculpture of that period was relatively limited in the presentation of human portraits and our object takes on a special meaning in the framework of the anthropomorphic art of the early Byzantine period.