A Roman Marble Sarcophagus Lid, circa late 3rd Century A.D.

VAT reduced rateUK: Greenford Park Warehouse

Live auction begins on:

July 3, 01:00 PM GMT

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

A Roman Marble Sarcophagus Lid

circa late 3rd Century A.D.

carved in low relief with the figure of a boy reclining on a couch with his head resting on his left hand and holding a garland in his right hand, and wearing a sleeved tunic and mantle falling from behind his right shoulder and wrapped across the abdomen, the curved ends of the couch (kline) each decorated with a horse head looking out, a diminutive figure of an erote seated by the foot of the couch and playing with a dog.

90.5 by 26 by 9.5 cm.

Nils Ebbessøn Astrup (1901-1972), Oslo, acquired in the 1950s/1960s on the advice of Hans Peter L'Orange (1903-1983), founder and director of the Norwegian Institute in Rome

Norwegian private collection, Oslo, by descent from the above

by descent from the above to the present owner

Exhibited

Historisk Museum, Oslo, "Dødskult i Antikken," April 14th-November 30th, 2008 (https://www.historiskmuseum.no/utstillinger/utstillingsarkiv/dodskult-i-antikken/tekst/)

Published

Sven Ahrens and Carola Kintrup, "Sarkophage und Aschenkisten in Oslo," in: G. Koch, ed., Akten des Symposiums Römische Sarkophage, Marburg, 2.-8. Juli 2006, (Marburger Beiträge zur Archäologie, vol.3), Marburg, 2016, p. 1, note 1

For related examples see arachne.dainst.org/entity/606414 (Vatican) and arachne.dainst.org/entity/613448 (Villa Doria-Pamphili, Rome).

For other marble sculpture from the Nils Astrup Collection sold at Sotheby’s see New York, June 8th, 2011, no. 42 ("Pseudo-Seneca"), June 3rd, 2015, nos. 28 (bearded head of Dionysos) and 50 (a Julio-Claudian portrait bust of a man), and London, July 2nd, 2019, no. 247 (a portrait head of Aristotle).