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Details
LOT 0723
Roman Bronze Neptune Statuette
1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
2 3/8 in. (37 grams, 60 mm).
Standing nude with arms raised, legs in advancing pose. [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.
Literature
Cf. Boucher, S. & Tassinari, S., Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine a Lyon: Bronzes Antiques I. Inscriptions, Statuaire, Vaisselle, Lyon, 1976, item 54, for similar figure of Neptune, item 61, for similar figure of Sucellus.
Footnotes
The condition of the statuette does not allow a easy identification of its original characterization, but the position of the body shows a certain affinity with provincial statuettes of the god Neptune, especially produced in Gallo-Roman ateliers. Some statuettes of Sucellus, the Gallic divinity assimilated into the Roman Pantheon as the equivalent of the Dispater, brother of Jupiter, could possibly also bear resemblance with our statuette for the position of the body.
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