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LOT 0691
Roman Lead Statuette of Mercury
1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.
3 1/2 in. (111 grams total, 88 mm including stand).
Standing in contrapposto pose, wearing a cloak draped from the right shoulder and tucked around the left arm supporting a caduceus with snake-head finials; broad-brimmed petasos with wings on the crown; the right arm held vertically at the side supporting the marsupium coin-purse; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom 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. Boucher, S. & Tassinari, S., Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine a Lyon: Bronzes Antiques I. Inscriptions, Statuaire, Vaisselle, Lyon, 1976, item 49, for type; see also Boucher, S., Recherches sur les Bronzes Figurés de Gaule Pré-Romaine et Romaine, Rome, 1976.
FootnotesMercury was the god of trade and industry, whose principle shrine in the city of Rome was at the Circus Maximus. The draped mantle is typical for statuary of Mercury from the 1st-2nd century A.D. (Boucher, pl.40, 43) as is the caduceus (Boucher, pl.46 (211)).
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Modelled in the round as a nude horseman with legs spread, musculature suggested to the chest and abdomen, shoulder-length hair with wavy locks, almond-shaped eyes and snub nose; right hand extended palm-upwards; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 154 grams total, 11 cm including stand
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.
The type has similarities with representations of Mercury on horseback, who is shown in an identical position. Images of Romano-Celtic rider-gods, possibly associated with the Roman god of war Mars, used similar iconography. There are a number of such rider statuettes from Roman Britain and Gaul, potentially votive offerings to a deity. -
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The fragment is possibly the upper part of a sharp pointed retractor, which was used for delicate operations on the tonsils and other internal parts of the body. The inscription probably refers to the name of the doctor, possibly LV[CIV]S HINT[IUS]. -
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