Property from a Belgian Private Collection
A Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Man, Reign of Antoninus Pius, mid 2nd Century A.D.
Auction Closed
December 7, 04:32 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a Belgian Private Collection
A Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Man
Reign of Antoninus Pius, mid 2nd Century A.D.
with full beard, moustache, and eyes with incised irises and drilled pupils, his unruly curly hair falling in two confronted crescentic locks over the high forehead, a recessed area with flat surface and dowel hole on the back; no restorations.
Height 29 cm.
Parke-Bernet Galleries🌜, New York, March 13ꦺth, 1952, no. 69. illus.
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, November 19th, 1957, no. 1🅰87, illus.
Gustaaf Vanderhaegen, Ghent, acquired at the aboಌve sale
by descent to the present owner
Published
Sotheby's, London, July 9th, 2020,🌟 no. 49, illus. (prior to cleaning)
The curls falling over the forehead are quoting portr🃏aits of emperor Antoninus Pius (see for example a bust in Rome: ). For another private portrait head imitating the likeness of Antoninus Pius see Sotheby’s, London, June 12th, 2017, no. 51 (now in the J. Paul Getty♒ Museum, inv. 2018.31: ).
For other Roman portraits with surfaces prepared for attachment of separately carved sections see M. Hirst and G. Salapata, Bulletin antieke beschaving, vol. 79, 2004, pp. 143ff.
Gustaaf Vanderhaegen acquired another Roman marble portrait head of a man in the 1957 Brussels sale. It was sold at Sotheby’s, New York, June 12th, 2003, no. 53 and is now in a distinguished New York private collection. In 1957, both heads we🔴re mounted on similar wood bases.