A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A MAN, HADRIANIC, CIRCA A.D. 117-138
Lot Closed
July 9, 01:47 PM GMT
Estimate
5,000 - 8,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A MAN, HADRIANIC, CIRCA A.D. 117-138
from a small statue or bust, his head turned to his right, the face with short beard, moustache, and straight nose, his hair radiating spirally from the crown and falling in coma-shaped locks over the high forehead and temples; no restorations and wearing a chlamys fastened with a brooch on his left shoulder.
Height 11.3 cm.
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Henriette Hertz (1846-1913), Rome
Alfred Mond, 1st Baron Melchett (1868-1930), Melchet Court and 35 Lowndes Sq., London
Eugenie Strong, Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Antiques in the Possession of the Rt. Honorable Lord Melchett, P.C., D.Sc., F.R.S., Oxford and London, 1928, p. 34, no. 30, fig. 19
Cornelius Vermeule and Dietrich von Bothmer, “Notes on a New Edition to Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. Part Two,” American Journal of Archeology, vol. 60, 1956, p. 338, no. 30.
Arachne database, no. 51521
For small-scale Roman portraiture see K. Dahmen, Untersuchungen zu Form und Funktion kleinformatiger Porträts der römischen Kaiserzeit, 2001.
The present object originated from the art collection of Henriette Hertz (1846-1913). On the intricate relationship between Hertz and the Mond family see Th. Adam, Transnational Philanthropy: The Mond Family’s Support for Public Institutions in Western Europe from 1890 to 1938, 2016, pp. 44ff.). The Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome was named after her (https://www.biblhertz.it/en/history).
In the introduction to the 1928 catalogue of the Melchett Collection, Eugenie Strong writes that “the name of Mond remains permanently associated with the splendid Italian pictures brought together by Ludwig Mond [1839-1909] and now housed in the National Gallery. Love of art and collecting was in the Mond tradition, and to this the younger generation continues faithful” (Strong, op. cit., p. V). Ludwig Mond’s son Alfred, 1st Baron Melchett (1868-1930), began expanding the breadth of the family collection early in the 20th Century.
This head was not included in any of the four sales of the Melchett Collection held at Christie’s and Sotheby’s between 1936 and 1954 (See Vermeule, Op. cit).