Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Property from a European Private Collection
A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF ARISTOTLE, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
Auction Closed
July 2, 04:42 PM GMT
Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a European Private Collection
A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF ARISTOTLE, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
with broad rounded beard, slightly parted lips, weary heavy-lidded eyes, crow’s feet, furrowed brow, and wrinkled forehead, his hair brushed forward from the crown and falling in thin wavy strands low over the balding pate and temples, the back carved separately, the neck carved for insertion into a herm; no restorations.
Height 34.5 cm.
Nils Ebbessøn Astrup (1901-1972), Oslo, acquired in the 1950s/1960s on the advice of Prof. Hans Peter L'Orange (1903-1983), founder and then Director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome, seen by Siri Sande with Nils Astrup between 1965 and 1969
by descent to the current owner
Published
Gisela M. A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, Supplement, London, 1972, p. 7, no. 19 (“Head in the collection of Mr. N. Astrup [so Mr. Seeberg has informed me]“);
Siri Sande, Greek and Roman Portraits in Norwegian Collections (ActaAArtHist, vol. 10), Rome, 1991, p. 12, no. 3, pl. 3 and dust jacket cover illus.
Karl Schefold, Die Bildnisse des antiken Dichter, Redner und Denker, Basel, 1997, p. 506
This head belongs to a type known in several replicas; for an overview see G. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, vol. 2, 1965, pp. 170ff., figs. 976ff. The Greek original is dated to the late 4th Century B.C. on stylistic grounds and convincingly identified as the portrait of the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.). The last replica of this type to appear at auction was at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, December 11th, 1980, no. 163. For the possible location of the original see E. Voutiras, in: J. Bergemann, ed., Wissenschaft mit Enthusiasmus. Klaus Fittschen gewidmet, 2001, pp. 123ff.
For other marbles from the Nils Astrup Collection sold at Sotheby’s see New York, June 8th, 2011, no. 42 ("Pseudo-Seneca"), and June 3rd, 2015, no. 28 (bearded head of Dionysos), and no. 50 (Julio-Claudian portrait bust of a man).