Hittite Bronze Statuette of a Stag

2ND-1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.

3 1/2 in. (291 grams total, 88 mm including stand).

Modelled in the round, the stag standing with legs firmly set, ears and antlers carefully modelled; mounted on a custom-made display 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. Zahlhaas, G., Animals in Ancient Art, Out of Noah's Ark, from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, Mainz, 1997, figs.126,128, for similar.

Footnotes

In Anatolia, cult objects in the form of a deer found in the Royal Cemetery of Alaca Höyük, dating to the 3rd millennium B.C., suggest worship of this animal. This continued during the Hittite period where bronze statuettes of this type were widespread. The cult was widespread in the Mediterranean-Aegean world. Even on the remote island of Sardinia, similar cultic and votive statuettes were made.

CONDITION

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LOT 1168