A Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Man, Antonine, mid 2nd Century A.D.

Auction Closed

July 3, 02:32 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

A Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Man

Antonine, mid 2nd Century A.D.

over-lifesize, turned to his right, with powerful neck, short beard, moustache, high cheekbones, eyes with incised irises and drilled pupils, and furrows above the eyebrows, his short hair falling in overlapping curls over the forehead and receding above the temples, the back of the head roughly worked, a thick rounded support projecting from the nape of the neck.

Height 28.5 cm.

Robin Symes, London, acquired in the 1970s-1990s

Hedda Kleinfeld Schachter (1924-2023), New York, acquired from the above in 1997 with her husband Jack Schachter (d. 2008) through Peter Marino, New York

acquired by the present owner in 2023

Published

Wall Street Journal, July 28th, 2023

The head is reminiscent of portraits of Antoninus Pius. The neck support is characteristic of sculptures from Roman Asia Minor: for Antonine examples see J. Inan and E. Alföldi-Rosenbaum, Roman and Early Byzantine Portrait Sculpture in Asia Minor, 1966, p. 191f., no. 263, pl. 143, and p. 215, no. 300, pl. 170 (arachne.dainst.org/entity/1067765).