LOT 0144

Roman Marble Head of a Young Man

2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

8 7/8 in. (5.94 kg total, 22.5 cm high including stand).

Worked in high-relief with hairstyle typical of the transitional period from the Consulate to the Empire; oval face with a prominent forehead, oval eyelids and clearly defined lines around the eyes; hair arranged in vertical lines combed back from the forehead; pronounced lips, typical rendering of the wide auricles; the lower part of the tunic visible with a well defined round edge around the neck; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Acquired from Gallery Gryphos, Munich, 1992.
European private collection.

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.11996-211878.

See Bianchi Bandinelli, R., L'arte Romana nel centro del potere, dalle origini alla fine del II secolo d.C., Roma, 1969; Scrinari, V. S. M., Sculture Romane di Aquileia, Roma, 1972; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, Greek & Roman Portraits 470 BC – AD 500, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1972, fig.32, for similar funerary portraits in high-relief; Vostchinina, A., Musée de l’Hermitage, Le portrait Romain, Album et catalogue illustré de toute la collection, Leningrad, 1974, plate I, for similar funerary portraits; Agnoli, N., Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Palestrina, Le sculture, Roma, 2002.

The head was probably pertinent to a series of funerary family portraits. It has realistic modelling of male features, which speaks of a portrait in reduced dimensions or a reference to a well-known person in the environment where it was exhibited. The portrait is worked only on the front, leaving the back, as well as the lower part of the sculpture, roughly treated.