Hellenistic or Roman Bronze Statuette of a Grotesque Holding a Jar

ALEXANDRIA, 1ST CENTURY B.C.-3RD CENTURY A.D.

2 5/8 in. (73.7 grams total, 68 mm including stand).

Modelled standing nude in a contorted pose with legs spread, holding a jar or bag to his chest; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Literature

Cf. Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, item 211, for type; cf. also Bolla, M., ‘Nani e pigmei nella piccola plastica in bronzo dell’Italia Settentrionale’ in Leger, C., Raux, S., Des objects et des hommes, Ėtudes offertes a Michel Feugère, Drémil-Lafage, 2021, pp.163-171, figs.2-3-4, for similar.

Footnotes

Such figures are often described as ‘grotesques’, yet typically constituted overstated representations of people with dwarfism. Such individuals are invariably shown with exaggerated features such as pot bellies, hunched backs, bald heads, large phalli and angry facial expressions.

CONDITION

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LOT 0780