Lot 49
  • 49

An Indurated Limestone Bust of Demetrios, Beit She’an, Roman Imperial, circa 2nd Century A.D.

Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 USD
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Description

  • An Indurated Limestone Bust of Demetrios, Beit She’an
  • limestone
  • Height 16 5/8 in. 42.2 cm.
probably carved out of a column drum, turned slightly to his right and wearing a chiton and himation, his face with short beard and large eyes with prominent rims, the hair left rough, his name Demetrios engraved on the chest in two lines of Greek inscription, the back rounded and polished.

Provenance

Shraga Qeder Collection, Tel Aviv, by 1982
acquired by the present owner from the above in 1985

Catalogue Note

For a related funerary bust see Ilona Skupinska-Løvset, Funerary Portraiture of Roman Palestine: An Analysis of the Production in its Culture-historical Context, Gothenburg, 1983, p. 64, cat. no. 76, pl. XXIV. Few busts were found inscribed, and of those that are, most bear names with a Semitic root. For busts inscribed with Greek names, of which only a handful exist, see Skupinska-Løvset, op. cit., p. 118.