LOT 0663

Roman Bronze Bull Statuette

2ND CENTURY A.D.

3 3/8 in. (227 grams total, 86 mm high including stand).

Modelled in advancing pose with one foreleg raised and tail looped over onto the rump, head erect with suggestion of an ornamental plate or garland on the brow; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]

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.

Cf. Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, item 242, for type; cf. similar statuette in the Leo Mildenberg collection in Kozloff, A.P., Animals in Ancient Art, from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, Mainz, 1981, no.62; various parallels can be found in the Cincinnati Art Museum (inv.1956.13), in Walters Art Gallery (inv.54.1565) and in the British Museum.

After the Roman annexation of Egypt, Egyptian cults such as that of the Apis bull were syncretised, becoming part of a distinctively Egyptian form of Roman polytheism. Representations of prancing Apis bulls, turned either left or right, have been found throughout the Roman Empire.