The Lower Part of a Roman Marble Figure of Aphrodite, circa 2nd Century A.D. | 羅馬大理石阿芙羅狄蒂雕像下半身，約公元 2 世紀

Sir Daniel Donohue (1919-2014), Montecito, California, acquired prior to 1978 (Bonhams, London, 13 April, 2011, no. 283, illus.)

Axel Vervoordt

Acquired from the above by the present owner

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加州蒙特西托，Daniel Donohue男爵（1919-2014年）於1978年前收藏（倫敦，邦瀚斯，2011年4月13日，拍品編號283，載圖）

維伍德畫廊

現藏者購自上述來源

For other statues of Aphrodite of Capua type see LIMC, vol. 2, pp. 71-73, nos. 627-632, including one from Corinth resting her left foot on a goose (no. 631). Statues of Aphrodite of a different type also showing this same feature can be seen in Athens (arachne.dainst.org/entity/1133974) and in the drawing of a lost example (doi.org/10.11588/diglit.867#0014; LIMC, vol. 2, pp. 28-29, no. 182).

The drapery is finely carved, with evenly spaced shallow horizontal lines indicating how the garments were folded when stored away. Another lower part of a statue of Aphrodite of Capua type similarly devised for the seamless addition of a separately made upper body is in Vienna (Antike Plastik, vol. 22, 1993, pls. 55-56: arachne.dainst.org/entity/1082322).

The present lot appears in an exterior view of Sotto il Monte, Daniel Donohue's Italianate residence on Sycamore Canyon Road in Montecito (partially reproduced on the sale catalogue cover of Bonhams & Butterfields, Los Angeles, The Collection of Sir Daniel Donohue, April 4th-5th, 2011). The photograph dates to 1967/1968 at the earliest, when Donohue had the reproduction of a Della Robbia glazed tile panel installed in the center of the loggia (Journal of the California Missions Foundation, vol. 33/1, 2017, p. 34), and to 1977/1978 at the latest, when he sold the house and had most of its contents removed. The house itself was designed by George Washington Smith and completed in 1930 for Mr and Mrs Kirk Johnson, who named it La Toscana (see https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/98547, showing the house shortly after completion, and http://www.adc-exhibits.museum.ucsb.edu/items/show/745 in 1978); A.E. Hanson was put in charge of landscape design. Lutah Maria Riggs, another celebrated American architect who had assisted Smith and Hanson with the original design of the house and grounds in the late 1920s, was hired by Donohue to help with several remodelling and landscaping projects, including the placement of artworks, between 1964 and 1971.