PROPERTY FROM A SWISS PRIVATE COLLECTION
A Hellenistic Bronze Figure of an Athlete or Actor, circa 2nd Century B.C.
LOT SOLD.
112,500 GBP
Details & Cataloguing
Ancient Marbles: Classical Sculpture and Works of Art
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London
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A Hellenistic Bronze Figure of an Athlete or Actor, circa 2nd Century B.C.
striding with his right leg forward, and wearing a short enveloping mantle twice folded, his bearded head turned to his left, his eyes with recessed pupils.
Height 15.5 cm.
Read Condition Report
Read Condition Report
Height 15.5 cm.
Provenance
Louis-Félix, vicomte de Nolivos (1805-circa 1867), Paris (Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19th-20th January, 1866, no. 13: "Hercule vêtu de la robe de Déjanire")
Carl Anton Milani (1820-1882), Frankfurt (F.A.C. Prestel, Catalog der Kunst- und Antiquitäten-Sammlung des verstorbenen Herrn C. A. Milani, June 4th and following days, 1883, no. 463, illus.)
Swiss Private collection, Lugano
Swiss Private collection, Lugano, acquired from the above in the late 19th Century
by descent to the present owner (affectionately called by the family "Il Viandante Maestoso" [The Majestic Wayfarer])
Carl Anton Milani (1820-1882), Frankfurt (F.A.C. Prestel, Catalog der Kunst- und Antiquitäten-Sammlung des verstorbenen Herrn C. A. Milani, June 4th and following days, 1883, no. 463, illus.)
Swiss Private collection, Lugano
Swiss Private collection, Lugano, acquired from the above in the late 19th Century
by descent to the present owner (affectionately called by the family "Il Viandante Maestoso" [The Majestic Wayfarer])
Literature
Wilhelm Froehner, Collection Auguste Dutuit; bronzes antiques, or et argent, ivoires, verres et sculptures en pierre [et inscriptions], vol. 1, Paris, 1897, p. 24
Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, vol. 2, Paris, 1909, p. 815, no. 5
Gisela M.A. Richter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes, New York, 1915, p. 84
Frederik Poulsen, "Aux musées d'antiques parisiens", in From the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, vol. 3, Copenhagen, 1942, p. 157, fig. 11
Judith Petit, Bronzes antiques de la collection Dutuit, Paris, 1980, p. 98
Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, vol. 2, Paris, 1909, p. 815, no. 5
Gisela M.A. Richter, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes, New York, 1915, p. 84
Frederik Poulsen, "Aux musées d'antiques parisiens", in From the collections of the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, vol. 3, Copenhagen, 1942, p. 157, fig. 11
Judith Petit, Bronzes antiques de la collection Dutuit, Paris, 1980, p. 98
Catalogue Note
Three related examples are known, sometimes described as actors or athletes. The closest one is in the Petit Palais in Paris, inv. no. DUT 45, from the Dutuit Collection, 11.9 cm. high without base, dated 1st/2nd Century A.D.; Petit, op. cit., p. 98, no. 36). The two others are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 07.286.96, 12.1 cm. high, dated late Hellenistic/Early Roman Imperial (Richter, op. cit., p. 84, no. 128, and C.A. Picón, Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 182, pp. 161 and 438), and in the Cabinet des médailles of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, inv. no. 2992, accessioned 1909, from the Piet Lataudrie collection (unpubl., mentioned by Petit, op. cit, p. 98).
For a similar figure on a 2nd Century A.D. Roman bronze balsamarium (coincidentally also in the Cabinet des Médailes, inv. no. 1420) decorated in relief with wrestling scenes from the palaestra, see Comte de Caylus, Recueil d'antiquités égyptiennes, étrusques, grecques et romaines, Paris, 1752-1767, vol. I, p. 217, pl. LXXXVIII, E. Babelon and J.-A. Blanchet, Catalogue des bronzes antiques de la Bibliothèque nationale, Paris, 1895, pp. 574-575, no. 1420, fig. 1420, H. Rolland, Bronzes antiques de Haute-Provence (Basses-Alpes, Vaucluse), Paris, 1965, no. 298, and C. Braun, Römische Bronzebalsamarien mit Reliefdekor (BAR, vol. 917), Oxford, 2001, no. 44, pl. 49.
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Ancient Marbles: Classical Sculpture and Works of Art
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