A Roman Marble Portrait Bust of a Woman, Augustan, circa early 1st Century A.D.

VAT reduced rateUK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Auction Closed

December 6, 03:36 PM GMT

Estimate

25,000 - 35,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Another Property

A Roman Marble Portrait Bust of a Woman

Augustan, circa early 1st Century A.D.

carved for insertion into a herm, wearing a stola, her head turned slightly to her left, her long hair drawn back over the ears in multiple braided strands, divided by a single braid pulled up above the forehead, falling in a fringe of ringlets over the forehead and temples, and tied over the nape of the neck, the hair in back with a circular vertical hole reaching down to the bottom of the bust; no restorations.

Height 41 cm.; height of face 15.5 cm.

This lot should have a W symbol in the printed catalogue. Lots marked "W" will be sent to Greenford Park Warehouse immediately after the auction.

Mssrs. Pizzardi and Barberi, Ascona, early 1960s

Luigi Hagner, Lugano-Cureglia, late 1960s

Donati Arte Classica, Lugano

Rupert Wace Ancient Art, acquired from the above in 2006

Jean-David Cahn, Basel, acquired from the above

Belgian private collection, acquired from the above in 2011 (Sotheby's, London, November 29th, 2017, no. 60)

acquired by the present owner at the above sale

Published

Rupert Wace Ancient Art, London, In Our Own Image: Gods and Mortals in Ancient Art, 2008, no. 21, illus.

Sotheby’s, New York, June 4th, 2009, no. 112, illus.

Sotheby's, London, December 7th, 2021, no. 63, illus.

For a related example in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples, inv. no. 6247, probably from the time of Livia, see M. Guidobaldi, ed., Ercolano. Tre secoli di scoperte, exh. cat., Naples, 2008, p. 279f., no. 113. Also see J. Raeder, Die antiken Skulpturen in Petworth House, 2000, pp. 179ff., no. 64, pl. 81f.; the author (op. cit., p. 180) notes that late Augustan portrait coiffures tend to combine heterogenous elements freely, such as the thin central braid which appears mostly on portraits of girls. For the fringe of ringlets over the forehead, see a head in the J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. no. 72.AA.129 (J. Frel, Roman Portraits in the Getty Museum, 1981, p. 34, no. 19).