Two Italian porphyry, 'breccia di campidoglio' and gilt bronze busts of Caracalla and Thetis, circa 1700 and later, probably Roman

each with a red painted inventory number 253 and 254 respectively

Collection of the Princes of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen
Schlosshotel Hertenstein near Luzern, probably purchased by C. Friedrich Knoerr circa 1875

Both gilt bronze heads are lacquered and have wear, standard surface abrasions and minor casting flaws. Caracalla has a small aperture on top of his head. Both have wear and abrasions to stone. Thetis: with some small cracks, chipping and losses around outer edges. Some restorations. Sections of drapery on upper arms are separately carved. Drapery on her proper left shoulder area is broken and repaired in several areas and there is some repair on the proper right side. There is a plaster fill painted to look like porphyry behind her proper right shoulder. There is restoration and a crack on her pleated undergarment (on proper right side of chest). Loss to lower back of base. Caracalla: his proper right upper arm/shoulder drapery and the swathe across his chest from the neck to the shoulder on the proper left side are separate pieces of stone. There is also a separately carved piece around the back of his neck. Smaller restorations include: surface chips, a triangle on the lower proper right side of his chest, a small wedge below the center of his neck and a small area on the proper left shoulder. Both bases have some restoration. Each bust is filled with composition on the reverse for consolidation. Both are stable and well carved.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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The present sculptures, created with a sumptuous combination of porphyry and gilt bronze, probably once formed part of a larger series of busts adorning a great palace.

The head of the Roman Emperor Caracalla is copied after the Antique; while many busts of the emperor were known in Rome in the Baroque period, a likely antecedent is the ancient marble head, on a 17^th century bust of porphyry, now preserved in the Musei Capitolini, Rome. The female head, originally thought to be Faustina II, appears to relate directly to a French 17^th century model of the Greek sea nymph Thetis. The French sculptor Robert Le Lorrain (1666-1743) executed a bronze head of this subject in around 1710, now belonging to the Prince of Liechtenstein.

In 1664, Charles Perrault, the French author who laid the foundation for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, published the story of Thetis based on Ovid. At the same time, le Grotte de Thétys, at Versailles was formed. It was an important symbolic and technical component to the gardens and symbolically, it related to the myth of Apollo – and by that association to Louis XIV. It was the cave of the sea nymph Thetis where Apollo rested after driving his chariot to light the sky.
Caracalla, like many Roman emperors from the Severan dynasty, strove to associate himself with the Greek god Helios, who also daily drew the sun across the sky in his chariot and who was perpetually linked to Alexander the Great. It is also known, through various depictions of Louis XIV, the "Sun God', that the King fashioned himself as a latter day Alexander the Great. It is perhaps this common thread that connects these two busts and that may provide a clue to the theme of the series of busts from which these two derived.
The mellow color of the porphyry and the distinctly non-baroque depiction of the drapery, may suggest that the shoulders on these busts were re-carved from antique sculptures.

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Haskell and N. Penny, Taste and the Antique, New Haven, 1981
Porphyre. La Pierre Pourpre des Ptolémées aux Bonaparte (exh.cat.), Musée du Louvre, 2003