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_900x900.jpg "Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress")
_200x200.jpg "Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress")
_900x900.jpg "Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress")
_200x200.jpg "Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress")
.jpg "Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress")
.jpg "Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress")
LOT 0176
Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress
MID-3RD CENTURY A.D.
15 7/8 in. (4.07 kg, 40.5 cm high including stand).
A member of the Imperial family, possibly an empress, depicted with an elaborate coiffure, the hair at the back of the head parted in the middle and the two strands folded over each other, then pulled to the front to form a looped horizontal layer parted in the middle of the smooth forehead and drawn back, individual curls represented as vertical lines along the forehead hairline up to the exposed ears, two locks hanging down the sides behind the ears, extending to the upper part of the neck; beautiful facial rendering with stoic expression, exquisite detailing to the eyebrows, eyelids and pupils; snub-nose, closed lips, thin and graceful neck; mounted on a custom-made display stand.
ProvenanceAcquired on the German art market, early 1970s.
German private family collection; by gift to the owner's son in 2015.
Private collection, London.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffele D'Amato, and Dr Marina Mattei, former curator of the Capitoline Museums for over 40 years.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12607-234556.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Cf. Felletti Maj, B.M., Museo Nazionale Romano, I Ritratti, Roma, 1953; Bianchi Bandinelli, R., Roma: la fine dell’arte Antica, Milano, 1970; Zanker, P., Roman Portraits: Sculptures in Stone and Bronze in the Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2016, fig.30.
FootnotesThe mature age of the woman depicted in the portrait is revealed by the oval gaunt, deep-set eyes and the folds at the sides of the nose and mouth. The woman’s head shows the typical traits of the full and mature 3rd century A.D., executed in a Hellenistic style tradition. Our sculpture is well inserted in the imperial portrait type, bearing technical and aesthetical parallels to portraits in bronze. The hairstyle could be Scheitelzopf (or reverse plait), tightened by a hairnet, pinned to the top of the head. The same type of hairstyle, albeit with variations in the details (decorative curls and position of the hair loop), is found on a few other portraits of women that were dated to the Period of Gallienus by Marianne Bergmann. Some of the portraits in this typologically related group are likely to be private portraits. Hereby physiognomic features and especially imperial coin portraits need to be taken into account. In this context, it is important to compare the portrait with that of Trebonianus Gallus in the MET.
Like the sculpture of Trebonianus Gallus, the head fits stylistically with Roman provincial bronzes from the Eastern Mediterranean or North Africa, possibly from workshops of Asia Minor or from the great metropolis of Alexandria, where bronze statuary was more common and Hellenistic influences remained strong.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0176
Life-Size Roman Bronze Head of an Empress
Estimate £60,000 - 80,000€69,600 - 92,800 (for guidance only)$81,000 - 108,000 (for guidance only)
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Roman Black Glass Bead Necklace String
1st-4th century A.D. and laterSold for (Inc. bp): £85
Restrung group of cylindrical, melon-shaped and other beads. 11.1 grams, 47 cm
Ex London, UK, collection, 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato. -
Very Large Roman Gold Ring with Engraved Head of Neptune and Warships
1st century B.C.-1st century A.D.Estimate: £4,000 - 6,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £1,800
A substantial hollow-form ring with a hexagonal plaque to the base of the hoop, expanding shoulders with a low-relief image of a standing nude goddess; raised oval bezel with an applied repoussé disc of a warship to each end; applied bezel with a chiselled image of god of the sea Neptune facing right, depicted with thick, lustrous beard and hair, the hair tied with a thin ribbon. 7.40 grams, 37.31 mm overall, 22.71 x 27.56 mm internal diameter (approximate size British Z+3, USA 13 3/4, Europe 32.57, Japan 31)
Ex Angelopolo collection, Vienna. Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. 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.12571-232087. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
The ring carries a rare combination of the god Neptune (Greek Poseidon) with two warships. This can only mean that it belonged to a navarcha, a commander of a fleet or a warship. In the turbulent era of the civil wars that followed the death of Caesar, important naval conflicts sealed the fate of the Roman Res Publica. Sextus Pompeius, son of the great Pompey, was able to build a naval power in the South of the Italian Peninsula, especially in Sicily, adopting the image of the god Neptune who - with an image very similar to that of our ring - was represented on the coins he minted, together with naval triumphs and warships. The ships depicted on the ring belong to the Liburna type, protagonist of the famous battle of Actium in 31 B.C. They were smaller and faster ships, armed with 82 oars disposed upon two orders, about 33 meters long, with 114 oarsmen, 10-15 sailors, and 40 marines. The hull-design of the Liburna with a pointed, streamlined prow built for speed, as well as the ram (rostrum), is here fully detailed. -
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Roman Gold Ring with Eros Gemstone
1st-2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,105
Hollow-formed shank, integral plaque with inset glass disc, low-relief Eros face in three-quarter view. 2.35 grams, 21.19 mm overall, 15.00 mm internal diameter (approximate size British D 1/2, USA 2, Europe 1.78, Japan 1)
Acquired in 1992. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
