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LOT 0840
Roman Marble Eagle Head
1ST-4TH CENTURY A.D.
9 in. (1.88 kg total, 23 cm high including stand).
Carved facing left, with deep-set hooded eyes and a hooked beak, stylised feather detailing to the head; mounted on a custom-made display base.
ProvenanceEx Simmons Gallery, London E11, UK.
Ex London collection, 1980s-1990s.
Cf. for a similar colossal marble eagle Bell, G.L., Amurath to Amurath, London, 1911, fig.3, p.10; Mendel, G., Catalogue des sculptures grecques, romaines et byzantines, Constantinople, 1914, nos.1135 (1949), vol.III, p.369; Reinach, S., Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, Tome III, 1920; Bertelli, G., ‘Amari usque ad mare, Acceptus e magister David a Siponto: nuove acquisizioni’, in Eurasiatica 4, 2016, Università degli Studi di Bari “Aldo Moro”, p. 67, fig. 6.
FootnotesIn the Greco-Roman world, the eagle was the symbol of Zeus. It is most probable that this eagle flanked a statue of the god. A story is bruited abroad to the effect that Zeus, wanting to determine the centre of the world, let eagles fly of equal speed from west and east. The birds, flying in opposite directions, met at Pytho and that marked the central point of the whole world.
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Roman Carnelian Gemstone with Farmer and Oxen
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The oval intaglio engraved with a man driving a pair of oxen with plough to left, a detailed tree with branches in the background, ground line under the oxen. 0.38 grams, 10 mm
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The gem could refer to the Augustan program of restoration of peace and security in the empire, after the agitated period of civil wars, with the possibility for men to return peacefully to their lands in a now peaceful empire. However, we cannot exclude that the image also refers to the well-known episode of Greek mythology, when Odysseus, to escape the call to arms in Troy, feigned madness by ploughing the fields without interruption, until he was unmasked by Palamedes, cousin of Agamemnon, who placed Odysseus' infant son Telemachus in front of the plough, forcing Odysseus to stop and reveal feigned insanity.
