Worlds within Worlds | Works from the Collection of Peter Petrou

Worlds within Worlds | Works from the Collection of Peter Petrou

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 167. Nilotic, Roman, circa 2nd Century A.D. | Mosaic Border Fragment.

Nilotic, Roman, circa 2nd Century A.D. | Mosaic Border Fragment

Lot Closed

September 21, 04:47 PM GMT

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Nilotic

Roman, circa 2nd Century A.D.

Mosaic Border Fragment


stone/marble tesserae

depicting two Pygmies engaging in sexual intercourse next to a trelliced structure

53.5 by 63 cm.; 21 by 24¾in.

‘Please note that where the buyer is from within the UK the lot is sold with no VAT symbol. Where the buyer resides outside the UK the lot is invoiced as if it bore the “†” symbol.’
Private collection, France, acquired on the Spanish art market in 1972;
thence by descent;
French art market, 2018;
Bonhams, London, 23 July 2020, lot 65 (part)
A Roman fresco from Pompeii, now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples, shows Pygmies having sex as entertainment for an Pygmy outdoor banquet on the banks of the Nile. 

For another fragment from the same Nilotic mosaic border, also depicting Pygmies, see Sotheby's, London, December 4th, 2018, lot 59.