Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art Part I
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art Part I
Property from a California Private Collection
A Roman Marble Head of Dionysos, circa 2nd Century A.D.
Auction Closed
December 6, 03:36 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a California Private Collection
A Roman Marble Head of Dionysos
circa 2nd Century A.D.
turned to his right, his wavy hair parted in the center, bound in a fillet passing over the forehead, brushed over the ears, surmounted by a heavy wreath of ivy leaves and clusters of berries, and gathered in a flat chignon in back; the nose, lips, chin, patches on right eye-brow, left cheek, and berries above left forehead restored in plaster.
Height 29.5 cm.
Michelangelo Guggenheim, Venice.
Ludwig Mond (1839-1909), The Poplars, St John's Wood, London, acquired from the above in 1885
Alfred Moritz Mond (1868-1930), Lord Melchett of Landford
Sotheby’s, London, November 27th, 1967, no. 75, illus, sold to “Treherne”
The Archaeological Shop, Hilton Hotel, Tel Aviv
acquired by the present owner from the above in 1971
Published
Eugenie Strong, Catalogue of the Greek & Roman Antiques in the Possession of Lord Melchett, London, 1928, p. 18, no. 13, pl. 18
Cornelius Vermeule and Dietrich von Bothmer, "Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain. Part Two," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 60, 1956, p. 338
The present head is a copy of the Dionysos Bevilacqua type. This type is best known from two almost completely preserved Roman copies in Munich, both from the Bevilacqua collection (M. Fuchs, Glyptothek München. Katalog der Skulpturen, vol. 6, 1992, pp. 86, no. 13, figs. 68ff.), and in London, from Cyrene (J. Huskinson, Roman Sculpture from Cyrenaica in the British Museum, 1975, p. 17f., no. 32, pl. 13; https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/G_1861-0725-2). The Greek original appears to have been a Hellenistic creation.
Michelangelo Guggenheim was an antiquities dealer active in Venice in the late 19th Century (see I. Favaretto, Arte antica e cultura antiquaria nelle collezioni venete al tempo della Serenissima, 1990, p. 271), from whom Ludwig Mond also acquired a Greek portrait (Strong cit., p. 29, no. 23, pl. 32). A Greek marble female head from the Melchett collection was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, December 8th, 2010, no. 43.