A Roman Marble Cuirassed Torso of an Emperor, Flavian Period, 3rd Quarter of the 1st Century A.D.

VAT reduced rateUK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Auction Closed

July 3, 02:32 PM GMT

Estimate

60,000 - 90,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

A Roman Marble Cuirassed Torso of an Emperor

Flavian Period, 3rd Quarter of the 1st Century A.D.

probably representing Titus or Domitian, standing against a fragmentary support with the weight on his right leg, and wearing a tunic, leather corselet and kilt, and bronze breastplate decorated in relief on the chest with a gorgoneion and on the abdomen with a Roman soldier and a barbarian captive flanking a military trophy, the pteryges ornamented with various motifs including a gorgoneion, an eagle with outspread wings, a ram's head, a lion's head, and an exploding star.

Height 119.4 cm.

private collection (The Property of a Gentleman: Sotheby's, London, March 27th, 1961, no. 151, illus., unsold; consigned by Robert Hecht, probably acting as agent)

Swiss private collection (see Vermeule op. cit.), probably the owner at the time of the above sale

Sotheby's, London, July 6th, 1964, no. 175, illus. (consigned by Robert Hecht)

Dodie Rosekrans (1919-2010), San Francisco

Sotheby's, New York, Property from the Collection of Dodie Rosekrans, December 8th, 2011, no. 134, illus.

Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, acquired at the above sale

Published

Cornelius Vermeule, "Hellenistic and Roman Cuirassed Statues: A Supplement," Berytus, vol. 15, 1964, p. 101, no. 85A, pl. 18,5 ("now in a Swiss private collection")

Klaus Stemmer, Untersuchungen zur Typologie, Chronologie und Ikonographie der Panzerstatuen, Berlin, 1978, p. 19, cat. I 19, pl. 10,1

Helga Herdejürgen, Stadtrömische und italische Girlandensarkophage (Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs, VI, 2,1), Berlin, 1996, p. 80, note 151

Katia Schörle, ed., L'armée de Rome: la puissance et la gloire, Arles, 2018, p. 31, no. 5

Jonathan Coulston, "The Power and the Glory," Minerva, March/April 2019, p. 18, no. 4

L. Romero, J. Andreu y M. del M. Gabaldón , "Un thoracatus imperial en Los Bañales (Uncastillo, Zaragoza)," Zephyr, vol. 73, 2014, p. 201, fig. 6, no. 15

Exhibited

Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, inv. no. MMoCA783, 2011-2023

The relief decoration on the lower part of the cuirass shows the tropaion or trophy, a memorial which, after ancient Greek custom, a Roman army would erect on the battlefield on the very spot where the enemy had turned to flee. On this sacred spot, which was consecrated ground, some of the enemy's weapons, helmets, shields, and other pieces of armor were suspended from a wooden cross. Defeated barbarians such as the one recognizable on the present torso by his trousers and long beard, would be put on display next to the trophy.

For a list of fifteen known cuirassed statues with tropaion decoration, including the present one, see Romero, Andreu and Gabaldón 2014, p. 201, fig. 6.