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Details
LOT 0134
Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Putto
3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.
10 3/4 in. (4.32 kg total, 27.2 cm including stand).
Carved in the round with detailed layered hairstyle swept back from the temples, broad brow with defined furrows, deep-set eyes, flat nose and small puckered mouth; provincial workmanship; mounted on a custom-made stand.
Provenance
Friedlinger-Brandt, circa 1950-1960, ambassador in Cairo before 1920.
Thereafter, Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, 1960-1970.
Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00064834.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Footnotes
The generally puffy and rounded appearance of the features and the copious hair suggest that the subject is not a human male but rather a putto or possibly the deity Cupid himself.
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