LOT 0117

Roman Marble Portrait of a Boy as Worshipper of Isis

EARLY 3RD CENTURY A.D.

20 1/4 in. (19.6 kg total, 51.5 cm including stand).

Carved head of a prepubescent worshipper of Isis, with soft facial features, long nose, small downturned mouth, heavy-lidded eyes, the whole giving the face a sombre or mournful appearance; the hair textured to indicate a short cut and combed forward across the scalp, sidelock above the right ear; mounted on a 16th century carved breccia upper body with leather cuirass and pteruges to right shoulder, cloak draped across the shoulders and fastened at the clavicle on the right side with a disc-brooch; socle base; some restoration.

North German private collection, 1970s, and thence by descent.
Antiquities, Bonhams, London, 5 October 2011, no.136.

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.12185-222445.

Exhibited at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, 21 January-6 March 1977; published in Hornbostel, W., Kunst der Antike, Schätze aus norddeutschem Privatbesitz, Hamburg, 1977, pp. 55-56, no. 35.

See Bianchi Bandinelli, R., Roma, la fine dell’arte antica, Milano, 1970, fig.55, for Roman sculpture of the period; for another portrait head of a boy with short hair and sidelock, also dating to the 3rd century A.D. in Petworth House, Sig.Wyndham, Petworth, and for a discussion of the Horus lock in imperial iconography, see Gonzenbach, V., ‘Untersuchungen zu den Knabenweihen im Isiskult der römischen Kaiserzeit‘, in Antiquitas 1. 4, Bonn, 1957, pp.105-128, and 139ff., K.8 pl.9; Raeder, J., Die antiken Skulpturen in Petworth House, MAR 28 (2000), 216 ff. Kat. Nr. 83 [Arachne Sculpture Database no.1084685]; for related example of hairstyle in the British Museum see Walker, S. & Bierbrier, M., Ancient Faces. Mummy Portraits from Roman Egypt, London, 1997, pp.192-193, no.261; for ancient sculptures reproduced or inserted in Renaissance marble see Fittschen, K., ‘Sul ruolo del ritratto antico nell’arte italiana’ in Setis, S., Memoria dell’antico nell’arte italiana, ed., vol.II, Turin, 1985; Favaretto, I., ‘La fortuna del ritratto antico nelle collezione venete di antichità: originali, copie e invenzione,’ in Bolletino d’Arte LXXVIII, no.79, May-June, 1993, pp.68-72; Bava, A.M., Le Meraviglie del mondo, le collezioni di Carlo Emanuele I di Savoia, Genova, 2016, p.233, fig.86.

The child is depicted as a worshipper of Isis with the right side of the head signalling that the boy was a devotee of the goddess’s cult. The head of the boy is probably a funerary portrait, and it is clearly in the first half of 3rd century style. Its resemblance to the portrait of Gordian III on the so-called sarcophagus of Acilia is impressive, so much so that this was probably the reason for which the head was incorporated within a military bust in the 16th century.