This beautifully cast and finely chased over life size bronze bust of the 6th/5th-century BC Athenian statesman Solon follows a lost Greek original which is best known from two surviving ancient Roman marble herm busts, one of which is in the Farnese Collection at the Museo Archeologico in Naples.

The present bust appears to be a copy of one of numerous marble busts of Solon after the antique, which were probably made in the late 17th or early 18th century. One such model which, like the present bust, bears the inscription Isocrates survives through at least three plaster casts housed in the Leipzig University Plaster Cast Collection (inv. no. G-201), the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp, and at the Archaeological Institute, Göttingen (inv. no. A 616). The now-lost late 17th or early 18th century marble bust from which these plaster casts and the present bronze derive, is highly likely to be the one formerly located in the Billiard-Room at Wilton House, known only from the short mention of a 'busto of Isocrates' in the old guide books of the collection (Kennedy, op. cit., p. 41).

This association with the Wilton House bust may shed light on the present bronze’s inscription of Isocrates in Greek despite the fact that the bust clearly replicates the model of Solon. The 8th Earl of Pembroke, who assembled the collection at Wilton House, is known to have been particularly fond of 'baptising' his busts and statues, both ancient and modern, by having them inscribed with the names of known deities and mythological and historical characters of his own choosing (Michaelis, op. cit., p. 669, and Scott, op. cit., p. 43). The affinities between the Greek lettering of Isocrates on the present bronze and many other Wilton House busts, including one of 'Posidonios' which was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 12 December 2014, lot 36, suggest that the present work was indeed derived from this now-lost marble model. The 8th Earl of Pembroke is known to have authorised copies of both his ancient and modern sculptures (Earl of Pembroke, op. cit., p. v), so the misidentification of Solon as Isocrates may well have been initiated by this model.

In the present bust, the drapes which fall around Solon’s neck recall Roman baroque busts, whilst the relatively short truncation could indicate that the bronze once slotted into a set of marble shoulders. Given its likely dependence on the Wilton House marble or corresponding plaster casts, and considering the quality of casting, it seems probable that the present bust was cast in Rome in the early 18th century.

RELATED LITERATURE

J. Kennedy, A New Description Of The Pictures, Statues, Bustos, Basso Relievos, And Other Curiosities, In The Earl of Pembroke's House, At Wilton, 1769, p. 41; A. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, 1882, p. 669; Thomas Herbert Earl of Pembroke, A Description of the Antiquities and Curiosities in Wilton-House, 1769, p. v; J. Scott, The Pleasures of Antiquity: British Collectors of Greece and Rome, 2003, p. 43