Details

LOT 0626

Roman Terracotta Frieze Fragment with Bird

3RD CENTURY A.D.

5 in. (643 grams, 12.5 cm).

Showing the figure of a bird enclosed inside a medallion, with edges decorated with a foliage, moulded grooves in the upper part, remains of red pigment on the dividing space. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired from Millon Arts D'Orient, with lot sticker.
Property of a Ruislip, UK, gentleman, by inheritance.

Literature

Cf. Gabucci, A. (Ed.), Zenobia,il sogno di una regina d'oriente, Milano, 2002, fig.91, for similar tondo with friezes.

Footnotes

The motif of a bird enclosed in a roundel draws inspiration from Parthian and Sassanid art, and decorated the ceilings of Roman Hellenistic tombs and temples of the Roman East. Our fragment could have been part of the polychrome stucco decoration of the ceiling of a tomb, or a square insert in a temple building. It certainly had to be painted in showy colours, of which clear traces remain in the amaranth red on the right of the fragment and in the pink and blue traces visible on the bird.