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Details
LOT 0145
Large Roman Marble Bull's Head Sculpture
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.- 2ND CENTURY A.D.
20 in. (98 kg, 51 cm).
Life-size bull's head (bucranium) on a rectangular field with flattened upper face and small ledge overhang; modelled in the half-round with detailed eyes, muzzle and dewlap, plain background; tooled texture to the forehead and dewlap; Eastern Empire. [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.
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.12081-213373.
Literature
Cf. similar item in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, under accession no.99.17; for various similar examples s. Mendel, G., Catalogue des sculptures grecques, romaines et byzantines, Constantinople, 1914, nos.1151 (381), 1164-1166 (300,1152,1139), 1282-1283 (2015-2016), vol.III, pp.493-494.
Footnotes
The bucranium was used as a prominent motif on the exterior of Graeco-Roman temples where it replaced the use of genuine severed heads from the sacrificial rites. Garlands were draped over the heads on feast-days and occasions of special religious observance. The flattened upper face suggests an architectural use, perhaps as a corbel.
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