A ROMAN BRONZE CANDELABRUM BOWL DECORATED WITH THE BATTLE OF THE PYGMIES AND THE CRANES, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
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July 9, 01:21 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A ROMAN BRONZE CANDELABRUM BOWL DECORATED WITH THE BATTLE OF THE PYGMIES AND THE CRANES, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
with grooved flaring stem, circular collar with tongue pattern, slightly concave hexagonal body cast in low relief with three duelling pairs of Pygmies and Cranes under swagged garlands, Lesbian kymation pattern below the scenes and tongues above, and circular mouth with cyma recta moulding adorned with Lesbian kymation pattern, the details finely engraved.
Height: 14 cm; maximum diameter 12.4 cm.
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Christie’s, London, April 27th, 1976, no. 188, pl. 3
Collection E. Foltzer (d. 1982), Switzerland, acquired from the above
Plektron Fine Arts, Zurich
For similar scenes in various media see “Pygmaioi,” LIMC, vol. VII, pp. 594-601, pls. 466-486, and LIMC, Supplementum, pp. 440-443, pls. 211-213.
The third book of Homer’s Iliad opens with a famous simile referring to the mythical battle of the pygmies and the Cranes: “Now when they were marshalled, the several companies with their captains, the Trojans came on with clamour and with a cry like birds, even as the clamour of cranes ariseth before the face of heaven, when they flee from wintry storms and measureless rain, and with clamour fly toward the streams of Ocean, bearing slaughter and death to Pigmy men, and in the early dawn they offer evil battle. But the Achaeans came on in silence, breathing fury, eager at heart to bear aid each man to his fellow” (transl. A. T. Murray).