LOT 0131

Life-Size Roman Statue Foot of a Young Athlete

1ST CENTURY B.C.-2ND CENTURY A.D.

8 5/8 in. (5.73 kg, 22 cm).

Comprising the left foot and ankle with finely modelled anatomical detailing, filled with lead and originally attached to a base from the sole of the foot.

From a London, UK, collection that was formed the 1980s.
Acquired from Alan Darer, Mayfair, London, UK, 2016.
From the private collection of a Beckenham, UK, lady.

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.12783-240373.
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. Reinach, S., 'Hermaphrodite: Statuette de bronze de la collection du Mis de Luppé' in Revue archéologique Volume 32, 1898, pp.321-336; Reinach, S., Repertoire de la statuarie grecque et romaine, Paris, 1930, p.100-104; Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, item 219, for similar fragment; Deiss, J.J., Herculaneum: Italy's Buried Treasure, New York, 1985; Various, Small bronze sculpture from the Ancient World, Malibu, 1990; Blix, G., From Paris to Pompeii: French Romanticism and the Cultural Politics of Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009; Kleiner, F.S., A history of Roman art, Wadsworth, 2010; Cooley, A.E., Cooley, M.G.L., Pompeii and Herculaneum, New York, 2014.

The small proportions of the foot could suggest that it originally belonged to a statue of a boy, young god or athlete. One of the possible candidates can be Apollo or Narcissus: many of their statues show a similar position of the left foot (Reinach, 1930, pp.100-104).