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LOT 0074
Greek Tarentine Terracotta Head of a Youth
MID 4TH CENTURY B.C.
9 1/8 in. (1.2 kg total, 25.3 cm high including stand).
Possibly depicting Ganymede or Paris, wearing a soft Phrygian cap with everted brim, the hair swept back from the face; almond-shaped eyes with pronounced eyelids, straight nose and fleshy lips; mounted on a custom-made display stand.
ProvenanceAcquired early 20th century.
From the collection of Count Henri d'Epinay (1940-2017), Longuenesse, France.
Accompanied by a copy of a French cultural passport no.196149.
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 search certificate no.11824-207736.
Cf. Reinach, S., Repertoire de la statuarie grecque et romaine, Paris, 1930, pp.471ff., and especially no.7, p.472; Rausa, F., ‘L’immagine del vincitore: L’atleta nella statuaria greca dall’età arcaica all’ellenismo’, in Ludica 2, Treviso and Rome, 1994, pp.136–38; Belli Pasqua, R., La scultura in marmo e in pietra. Catalogo del Museo Nazionale Archeologico di Taranto IV, 1., Taranto, 1995; Hakanen, V., Ganimede in the art of the Roman Campania, Ancient Roman viewers' experience of erotic mythological art, Helsinki, 2022; for similar heads in terracotta see Ferruzza, M.L., Ancient Terracottas from South Italy and Sicily in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2016, nos.19, 20, 21.
FootnotesThe terracotta sculpture appears to have similarities with other Tarentine heads from the early Hellenistic Period. A marble head from Taranto, datable to the end of the 4th century B.C., presents similar elements. The visible character is clearly attributable to Graeco-Roman mythology. The only clue regarding the identity of the head is provided by the Phrygian cap, which narrows down the identification to few characters from Greek mythology: the Trojan prince Ganymede, abducted by Zeus for his beauty and named by him the cupbearer of the gods, or the Trojan prince Paris. There are many representations of Ganymede in a Phrygian cap (Hakanen, 2022, plates 6,12a). However, the third possibility is that the sculpture represents Attis, lover of the goddess Cybele.
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Greek Red-Figure Fragment with Athletes Attributed to the Euaion Painter
Circa 460 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,900
From a kylix, the inside painted with two young naked athletes within a medallion, conversing and cleaning their bodies with a strigil, the edge of the medallion decorated with a series of meanders and four crosses; the outside with two naked athletes and other figures, divided by foliage ornaments and volutes. 121 grams, 15.2 cm
Acquired in before 2005. Private collection, Europe. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11805-206818.
The Euaion painter was a prolific artist of about 460 B.C. His painting - already in the manneristic period of the Attic red figures vases - was more nearly classical in style, although the ancestry of his small-headed, slim figures, is very evident. He introduced a high, sometimes patterned ground line for an upright two-figure group, and preferred the old elaborately patterned borders for tondos and the ground lines outside cups. -
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Etruscan Bronze Figure of Warring Mars
6th century B.C.Estimate: £8,000 - 10,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £4,000
The Etrusco-Italic warrior Laran (Roman Mars) modelled in the round, representing a young muscular hero with long torso and rounded shoulders, wearing a high-crested Illyrian helmet with grooved perimeter, a hole above each ear for attaching an ornament; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 326 grams total, 16.2 cm high including stand
Ex collection Koutoulakis. Ex Gorny & Mosch, Munich, 17 June 1999, lot 2051. with Sotheby's, New York, 12 June 2001, lot 16. 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 search certificate number no.11803-206793.
The statuette assumes the position of the 'warring Mars', which characterises the numerous Etruscan and Italic statues of the god produced as votive offerings to the temples or for private lararia. The god is depicted as taking part on a military march with his left leg advancing, his raised right would have held a spear and the left hand a shield. -
Hellenistic Glass Gem with Goddess
3rd-2nd century B.C.Estimate: £600 - 800 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £333
Engraved with a goddess (Aphrodite?), facing right, peplos around her hips, her left elbow resting on a column and her left hand behind her body; the right hand outstretched and holding a sceptre; a snake(?) before. 2.52 grams, 22 mm
Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection.
In the famous Greek myth of the Gorgon, Aphrodite, jealous of their beauty, placed a curse on Medusa and her sisters, transforming their hair into snakes and making their gaze turn anyone into stone.
