Details

LOT 0154

Roman Silver Eagle Holding a Deer

2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

1 1/2 in. (21.5 grams, 38 mm high).

The eagle standing with its wings folded, erect head with natural facial detailing, claws gripping the body of a reclining doe with raised head and pricked ears.

Provenance

Acquired in the 1980s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.

Literature

Cf. statuette in bronze of the same typology in Getty Museum, inventory no. 78.AC.336.

Footnotes

The motif of an eagle and a stag or a deer is typically associated with the God Jupiter/Zeus Dolichenus and his wife Juno Dolichena, name derived from his sanctuary in Doliche, Anatolia. Jupiter Dolichenus was a soldier god, usually portrayed wearing full military attire and standing on a bull, while his consort would have been shown standing on a deer or stag.