Property from the Estate of Louis Maury, Switzerland
A ROMAN MARBLE HEAD OF SARAPIS, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Auction Closed
July 2, 04:42 PM GMT
Estimate
60,000 - 90,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Estate of Louis Maury, Switzerland
A ROMAN MARBLE HEAD OF SARAPIS, EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
with full beard of overlapping curls, parted lips, deep-set eyes, and prominent brow, his long hair parted in the center, swept up above the forehead, bound in a diadem, and cascading down the sides in wavy locks, a circular hole on top for insertion of the modius, the rounded back roughly worked and with remains of gadroons belonging to the column from which the head was carved; no restorations.
Height 43.5 cm.
Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Jozon-Rabourdin-Choppin de Janvry, commissaire-priseurs associés, February 23rd, 1981
Louis Maury, Geneva, acquired at the above sale
by descent to the present owners
Published
La Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot, 90th year, no. 8, February 20th, 1981 (advert)
A pre-1985 black and white photograph of the head has a typewritten description on the back signed and stamped by Jean Roudillon, expert en objets d’art, Paris.
The arrangement of the hair above the forehead differs from Sarapis’ canonical iconography: instead of falling over the forehead in several distinct locks, it is parted and upswept in a manner similar to heads of Asklepios (cf. a statue in Copenhagen: M. Moltesen, Catalogue Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek. Imperial Rome, vol. 2, 2002, p. 164f., no. 43), or of Zeus (cf. a statue from Cyrene: C. Landwehr, in: B. Andreae, ed., Phyromachos-Probleme [31. Ergh. RM], 1990, p. 105, pl. 56f.).