Roman Bronze Phallic Mount

Probably from a colossal statue of Silenus or a satyr, detailed and naturalistic rendering of a left ear, conical shape with accurate depiction of the internal hair. 767 grams, 18.5 cm



Acquired in Europe before 1995. Private collection, Europe.

In the mythology of ancient Greece and in the Graeco-Roman literary world, satyrs were a community of beings who lived mostly in woods, surrounded by nature, and often together with nymphs. In the most ancient period they were imagined by the Greeks like Sileni, in human form, but with the ears, tail and sometimes hooves of horses. Seilenoi were depicted as fat, elderly, white-haired men, with snub noses, balding heads, and the ears and tails of asses. They were sometimes covered in fluffy white hair and occasionally sported a pair of ox horns.

Pale green with bulbous body, barrel-shaped neck and everted rim. 63 grams, 16 cm



Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.

Naturalistically modelled in the round, large and deep eyes with a thoughtful expression under the heavy eyelids; lips lightly profiled and parted; the back and lower part roughly treated indicating that it was prepared to be installed in a hollow or part of a relief; mounted on a custom-made display base. 4.59 kg total, 25 cm high including stand



Ex private Swiss collection, prior to the late 1980s. Acquired at Camels-Cohen Auction 228, Paris, France, 16 & 17 September 2003, lot 324. Private collection, Europe. Accompanied by an academic report by Professor Neritan Ceka. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11806-206511.

The realistic style of treatment of the portrait and the preservation of classical features, in the examples of Cicero, Pompeius, or Agrippa, lead us to the last period of Roman republican portraiture, around the middle of the 1st century B.C. On the other hand, the frontal symmetry of the face, the serious expression of the eyes and the hair behind the neck, refer to the Greek sculpture of the Rigorous Style, from which the presentation of the portrait may have been inspired. These features could suggest also dating of the portrait to the last decades of the rule of the Julio-Claudian Dynasty in Rome, when there is a return to the realistic tradition of the portrait, as well as to the hairstyle with the parallel curls of the hair on the forehead in the figures, as in the portrait of Emperor Caligula (37-41 A.D.).