THE BEAUTY WITHIN: The Chenel Collection

THE BEAUTY WITHIN: The Chenel Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 70. A Roman Marble Portrait Statue of a Woman, circa 1st Century A.D..

A Roman Marble Portrait Statue of a Woman, circa 1st Century A.D.

Lot Closed

December 17, 04:10 PM GMT

Estimate

150,000 - 250,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

A Roman Marble Portrait Statue of a Woman

circa 1st Century A.D.


standing with the weight on her right leg, wearing a chiton buttoned on the upper arm and stola held by thin straps over her shoulders and belted under the breasts, and a mantle wrapped twice around her body, falling over her left forearm, and formerly covering the head as a veil, the neck hollowed out for insertion of a portrait head, the now missing right lower arm separately carved; no restorations.

Height 172 cm.

Wilson family collection, Nogales, Arizona, acquired in Europe in the mid 1960s/early 1970s (Christie’s, New York, June 8th, 2012, no. 222, illus.)
Galerie Chenel, Paris, acquired at the above sale
European private collection, acquired from the above in September 2012
acquired from the above in 2019
The stola, worn by Roman elite women, indicates that the statue was designed for a portrait head. Assuming that the stola is an addition by the Roman sculptor, the statue is likely to be a copy of an otherwise unattested Greek original of the late 4th cent. BC: For the stance cf. the Large Herculaneum Woman (for the type see most recently K. Knoll, C. Vorster, eds., Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden. Katalog der antiken Bildwerke, vol. 3, 2013, pp. 170ff., no. 33). For the V-shaped mantle-folds on the lower body cf. the Hygieia Polignac type: W. Geominy, in: P. Bol, ed., Die Geschichte der antiken Bildhauerkunst, vol. 3, 2007, p. 88, fig. 114. For the mantle wrapped twice around the body cf. the statue sold at Sotheby’s, London, June 12th, 2017, no. 42.