Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
A ROMAN BRONZE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A MAN, HADRIANIC, CIRCA EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Auction Closed
December 3, 05:06 PM GMT
Estimate
200,000 - 300,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A ROMAN BRONZE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A MAN, HADRIANIC, CIRCA EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.
from a life-size figure, with layered wavy beard and long moustache, finely shaped mouth, aquiline nose with flaring nostrils, large wide-set eyes with incised irises and dotted pupils, and thick deeply grooved eyebrows, his incised hair radiating from the crown in incised wavy locks, and framing the forehead in luxuriant overlapping wavy curls.
height 28 cm.
Robin Symes, Ltd., London, late 1970s
Swiss private collection, as of 1982
Robin Symes, Ltd., London
Clarence Day, Memphis, Tennessee, acquired from the above on October 2nd, 1991 (Sotheby's, New York, June 8th, 2011, no. 51, illus.)
Published
Hans Jucker and Dietrich Willers, eds., Gesichter. Griechische und römische Bildnisse aus Schweizer Besitz, exh. cat., Bern, 1982, p. 133f., no. 54, illus.
Ernst Künzl, "Silberimagines," Hefte des archäologischen Seminars der Universität Bern, p. 46, pl. 11
Götz Lahusen and Edilberto Formigli, Römische Bildnisse aus Bronze: Kunst und Technik, Munich, 2001, p. 210f., no. 126, figs. 126,1-4
Stephan Lehmann, ed., Authentizität und Originalität antiker Bronzebildnisse, Dresden, 2015, p. 228f., no. 20, illus. (reviewed by Carol Mattusch, American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 120, no. 2, April 2017: https://www.ajaonline.org/book-review/3435, and by Sasha Kansteiner: https://www.hsozkult.de/publicationreview/id/reb-23701)
Deutsche Welle documentary, February 9th, 2002: https://m.dw.com/en/the-mystery-conman-the-murky-business-of-counterfeit-antiques/a-18993893 (3:08-3:15), starring Stephan Lehmann
Anonymous blog, "El Maestro Español," March 12th, 2017: http://laescaleradeiakob.blogspot.com/2017/03/el-maestro-espanol.html
"Gesichter. Griechische und römische Bildnisse aus Schweizer Besitz," Historisches Museum, Bern, November 6th, 1982, to February 6th, 1983
"Year in Review Corollary," The Cleveland Museum of Art, February 4th to March 18th, 1987
Radiocarbon (C-14) dating of pieces of charcoal tightly embedded within the inside of the head yielded a range of 90 B.C - 49 A.D. A complete report, including the results of metallographic testing, X-ray radiography, and lead-120 analysis is available upon request.