BC/AD Sculpture Ancient to Modern
BC/AD Sculpture Ancient to Modern
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF SILVANUS, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Lot Closed
July 9, 01:38 PM GMT
Estimate
120,000 - 180,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF SILVANUS, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
standing with the weight on his right leg, and holding pomegranates, grapes, and pine cones in a goat skin tied on his right shoulder, a broad puntello connecting the end of the skin to his left thigh, a fragmentary one above the right hip; no restorations.
Height: 74 cm
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Jean-Philippe Mariaud de Serres, Galerie Serres, Paris, 1980s/1990s
French private collection
David Ghezelbash Archéologie, Paris
acquired by the present owner in 2015
David Ghezelbash Archéologie, Paris, catalogue no. 8, 2013, no. 31, illus.
Drouot-Richelieu, Pierre Bergé & associés, May 30th, 2015, no. 191, illus.
Silvanus, whose name in Latin translate to “of the woods,” was the Roman patron deity of the forest and uncultivated lands. In the Georgics, Virgil relays that Silvanus fell in love with a beautiful youth named Cyprarissus. One day while following him in the woods, the god accidentally killed Cyprarissus’ beloved pet deer. Inconsolable, the boy died of grief. Silvanus then transformed him into the aptly named cyprus tree, which became his own sacred attribute (Georgics, I-20-1).
The statuary composition may have been similar to the Dresden Boy: https://skd-online-collection.skd.museum/Details/Index/166064