A bronze chariot fitting in the form of a satyr bust with the head turned to the left; the thick hair arranged in undulating locks with large ears protruding between the curls and two small horns emerging from the centre of the forehead, expressive facial detailing with large eyes and incised pupils; a panther skin covering the chest and tied over the right shoulder, leaving the left shoulder exposed in the manner of Greek exomis tunic; a rectangular socket in an angle for attachment to the chariot on the reverse; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]

PROVENANCE:
UK private collection before 2000.
UK art market.
Property of a London gentleman.
Accompanied by an archaeological report by Dr. Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.11092-184034.

LITERATURE:
See Boucher, S., Inventaire des Collections Publiques Françaises - 17 Vienne: Bronzes Antiques, Paris, 1971; Ratković, D., 'Wagon and Harness Bronzes from the Roman Collection of the National Museum in Belgrade' in Thiasos, Festschrift fur Erwin Pochmarski zum 65. Geburtstag, Wien, 2008, pp.793-815, figs.3-7-8, for similar items; compare also with decorated chariot fittings in Menzel, H., Die römischen Bronzen aus Deutschland III, Mainz am Rhein, 1986, pp.164-177, nos.458-485, especially pls.142-144, for those with the bust of gods; for another possible bust of Bacchus or part of his retainers as a chariot decoration see Humer, F., Kremer, G., Pollhammer, E., Pülz A., AD 313 Von Carnuntum zum Christentum, Bad Voslau, 2014, no.84.

FOOTNOTES:
Bronze figurative decorations on funerary wagons are very often of Dionysiac character and related to Dionysiac mysteries. Hitherto it was a standard approach for the scholars to consider the decoration of funeral wagons as exclusively associated with the cult of Dionysus and various themes related to this cult, considering that many of the chariot fittings excavated to date were busts of the god himself, Maenads, satyrs, young men with vine-leaf crowns, or animals, like panthers, linked to his cult. One example similar to this sculpture is the bust of a Maenad in the collection of ancient bronzes of Vienne (Boucher, 1971, cat.42) which is most probably a chariot decoration, together with a bust of Dionysus in the same collection (Boucher, 1971, cat.43).