Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Other Properties
ROMAN MARBLE FIGURES OF ASKLEPIOS AND HYGIEIA/AIGLE, CIRCA LATE 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Auction Closed
July 2, 04:42 PM GMT
Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Other Properties
ROMAN MARBLE FIGURES OF ASKLEPIOS AND HYGIEIA/AIGLE, CIRCA LATE 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Asklepios standing on a profiled plinth with the weight on his left leg, and wearing sandals and himation falling from his left shoulder and draped around the lower body with triangular overfold, his left hand holding the himation in place, the right arm lowered, his head turned to the right and with full beard and long curly hair, a diminutive figure of Telesphoros standing to his right; Hygieia/Aigle standing on a profiled plinth with the weight on her right leg and holding a fragmentary serpent in her left hand, and wearing a long chiton girdled beneath the breast and mantle drawn as a veil over the head, her head turned to the left and with centrally parted hair, a small slumbering figure of Eros sitting to her right on a rocky outcrop; no restorations.
Total heights 64 and 60 cm.; heights without plinths 56 and 54 cm.
Archaeological Shop, Hilton Hotel, Tel Aviv
private collection, United Kingdom, acquired from the above in 1971 with certificates from Hans Jucker, Universität Bern, dated May 5th, 1971
private collection, by descent (Christie’s, London, October 1st, 2014, nos. 112 [Hygieia] and 113 [Asklepios], illus.)
A similar group of Asklepios and Telesphoros is in the Royal Academy of Physicians, London (unpublished). Also see Sotheby's, New York, June 18th, 1991, no. 220. The female statuette is a miniature replica of a statuary type of the 4th Century B.C. representing Aigle, one of Asklepios’ daughters, according to the inscription on the plinth of another miniature replica from a group of Roman statuettes representing Asklepios' family found at Dion in Greece (LIMC, vol. 8, p. 779, no. 3, pl. 522). For the type see E. Atalay, Weibliche Gewandstatuen des 2. Jhs. n. Chr. aus ephesischen Werkstätten, 1989, pp. 89ff. A sleeping Eros is a common companion figure of statuettes of female divinities from Asia Minor; see A. Filges, Istanbuler Mitteilungen, vol. 49, 1999, pp. 392ff. For the profiles of the plinth of both statuettes see Filges, op. cit., p. 402f., fig. 1.