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_900x900.jpg "Roman Marble Head of a Woman")
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_900x900.jpg "Roman Marble Head of a Woman")
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LOT 0151
Roman Marble Head of a Woman
3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.
15 3/8 in. (8.45 kg, 39 cm high).
Carved in three-quarter view, with hair dressed in a chignon with frontal band and wavy segments; soft facial features with much detailing remaining to the proper right eye and mouth; likely a frieze fragment; mounted on an old collector's display stand with typed label 'Marble, woman's head / Egypt / C.25-100 A.D. / Cat.No. 6169'.
ProvenanceAcquired in trade from the San Franciscanum Museum, Israel, prior to 1980.
with Archaeologia, pre 1983, Switzerland and Canada.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12964-242755.
Cf. Wessel K., ‘Römische Frauenfrisuren von der severischen bis zur konstantinischen Zeit,’ in Archäologischer Anzeiger, 61/62 (1946-47); Meischner J., Das Frauenporträt der Severzeit, Berlin, 1964, pp. 20 ss.; Buccino L., ‘Morbidi capelli e acconciature sempre diverse,’ in La Rocca, E., Parisi Presicce, C. con Lo Monaco, A. (a cura di), Ritratti. Le tante facce del potere (catalogo della mostra, Roma, Musei Capitolini, 10 marzo- 25 settembre 2011)', Roma 2011, pp. 360-383; Scarpati G., ‘Ritratto femminile,’ and Fileri, E., ‘Ritratto femminile,’ in Gasparri C. e Paris, R. (ed.), Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Le Collezioni, Milano, 2013, n. 131, p.193; n. 266, p.366; the present example shows close similarities with the portrait of a young woman in the Prado Museum, in Barrón, E., Catálogo de la escultura. Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura, Madrid, 1908, pp.244, no.362, dated to 225-256 A.D.
FootnotesThe arrangement of the hair is characteristic of female portraits dating between the late Severan and Tetrarchic periods. The head, due to the treatment of the hair, finds comparisons with a female portrait in the Museo Nazionale Romano, depicting an elderly woman of the Antonine era, and with another female portrait in the same museum, dated to the third decade of the 3rd century A.D., reworked in the Tetrarchic period, and which showed a Severan so-called Nest Frisur hairstyle. The sculpture in question can therefore be dated between the full 3rd century A.D. and the first decades of the 4th century A.D. based on the hairstyle, the shape of eyes and eyebrows.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0151
Roman Marble Head of a Woman
Estimate £6,000 - 8,000€6,960 - 9,280 (for guidance only)$8,100 - 10,800 (for guidance only)
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Roman Silver Ring and Gemstone
2nd-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £85
Comprising: a ring with D-section hoop widening at the shoulders, oval cell to the bezel to accept an insert; a red glass intaglio with a stylised profile bust(?) set in a bronze mount. 12.70 grams, 24.03 mm overall, 16.67 mm internal diameter (approximate size British H, USA 3 3/4, Europe 6.18, Japan 6)
Property of a Cambridgeshire, UK, collector. From his private collection since the 1970s; thence by descent circa 2000. Ex private collection of a Bedfordshire gentleman. -
Roman Bronze Bow Brooch
2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £98
P-shaped bow brooch with three onion-shaped knops to the upper edge of the headplate, chord and pin to reverse, deep bow with ribbed section above junction with the rectangular foot; catch to reverse. 38.4 grams, 69 mm
Ex important German collection, 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This type of fibula falls within the P-shaped bow brooch typology, a provincial form found in Britain, Pannonia, and the Balkan Peninsula. It is usually associated with men's costume. -
Late Roman Imperial Porphyry Fragment
4th-6th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,640
Formed as a parallelepiped with round corner having a possibly later polished side and the other three sides straight and round, with signs of carving; probably from an Imperial sarcophagus or monument; mounted on a custom-made stand. 9.85 kg total, 36.5 cm including stand
Acquired from the private collection of a Somerset gentleman who was related to Sir Arthur Evans. From the private collection of a UK gentleman since before 2005.
For the Romans, porphyry was the Imperial marble par excellence, and from Constantine the Great until the end of the 5th century, but probably also later, it was used to create sarcophagi for the emperors and members of the Imperial families. This particular stone was connected with the Imperial family because of its red colour, recalling the violet and red shades of the purple (porphyra), the precious colour assigned only to emperors and their relatives. In Constantinople, a room of the Imperial palace was called Porphýra, located on one of the palace terraces overlooking the Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus. It was perfectly square in shape with a pyramidal ceiling and was entirely covered in purple porphyry speckled with white dots: this was the room where the empresses gave birth to the heir of the Roman Empire, called Porphyrogénnētos, meaning ‘born in the purple room’. Porphyry was widely used for building churches in the Christian Empire, and Justinian exhausted the supplies from Egypt by building the Great Church of Hagia Sophia, where still today a great amount of this material can be seen. The impressive Imperial sarcophagi were kept in the Church of the Holy Apostles, as well as the great porphyry sarcophagus of Constantine the Great, of which only a small fragment survives today in the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul.
