LOT 0148

Roman Bronze Figure of a Bathing Young Girl

3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.

6 7/8 in. (448 grams total, 17.4 cm including stand).

Depicted as a standing nude female figure with hair dressed in a chignon, left hand clasped to the chest, and right arm bent; mounted on a tiered display stand.

Acquired in the late 1980s.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12862-241687.

See Boucher, S. & Tassinari, S., Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine a Lyon: Bronzes Antiques I. Inscriptions, Statuaire, Vaisselle, Lyon, 1976, item 65, for type; see also Reinach, S., Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, Paris, 1897, p.359, no.2; see also for the costume Catullo, L., L'Antica Villa Romana del Casale di Piazza Armerina nel Passato e nel Presente, Messina, 2000, pp.60-63.

The girl is depicted in the act of girding her chest with a fascia, similar to the one illustrated in the famous mosaics of Piazza Armerina, where the band is worn together with a subligaculum that covers her lower parts. It is modelled after a real two-piece bath costume of the ancient Romans.