Details

LOT 0131

Roman Bronze Statuette of a Germanic Captive

LATE 2ND CENTURY A.D.

2 1/2 in. (93 grams total, 62 mm including stand).

Modelled with arms held behind the back, legs astride and left knee bent, head angled upwards over the right shoulder; the trousers and sleeves with incised crosshatched pattern, plain shoes; the hair drawn up in the 'Swabian knot' style above the right ear; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [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. Rolland, H., Bronzes Antiques de Haute Provence, Paris, 1965, item 321; Beutler, F. et al., Der Adler Roms. Carnuntum und der Armee der Cäsaren, Bad-Deutsch Altenberg, 2017, item 1005, for similar.

Footnotes

Statuettes of foreign ‘barbarian’ prisoners of this type have been found along the Danube. Their spread coincides with the Marcomannic wars of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. The Swabian knot in this warrior’s hair has parallels with the warrior depicted on the contemporary Sarcophagus of Portonaccio, which represents a battle between Romans and Germanic Gauls.