A Marble Portrait Bust of a Man, Roman Imperial, Trajanic/early Hadrianic, circa early 2nd Century A.D., probably recarved in the 3rd Century A.D.

Estimate

20,000 - 30,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

A Marble Portrait Bust of a Man
marble
Height 19 in. 48.3 cm.

carved in one piece with the circular support and plinth, his head turned to his right, with short beard, long moustache, fragmentary aquiline nose, and deep-set eyes with double-dotted pupils and incised irises, the short wavy hair brushed forward from the crown, the back of the head carved from a separate piece of marble.

Provenance

recorded in two unmarked photographs accessioned on October 28th, 1934, in the image library of the German Archaeological Institute in Rome (Deutsches Archaologisches Institut Rom, neg. nos. 34.1705 and 34.1706)
Archaeological Shop, Hilton Hotel, Tel Aviv, prior to 1977
European private collection (Sotheby's, New York, June 14th, 2000, no. 84, illus.)

Literature

Arachne, no. 1059749 (http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/marbilderbestand/1059749)
Arachne, no. 1059750 (http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/marbilderbestand/1059750)

Catalogue Note

On the techniques of re-appropriating and re-carving earlier Roman portraits in the 3rd Century A.D. see Marina Prusac, From Face to Face: Recarving of Roman Portraits and the Late-antique Portrait Arts (Monumenta Graeca et Romana, 18), Leiden and Boston, 2011, chapter IV.