A Roman marble male portrait head
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286*
A Roman marble male portrait head
Republican, circa 1st Century B.C.
Depicting a mature man, his face naturalistically carved in a severe expression, with lines around the eyes and defined creases between nose and mouth, the forehead furrowed with brows drawn into a frown, with short hair schematically carved, the back flat and unhewn, 10in (25.5cm) high, mounted
Sold for £50,400 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • Provenance:
    Property from the Collection of Sir Daniel Donohue.

    Literature:
    Veristic portraits of Patrician men such as the Tivoli general and the Louvre 'Cato-Albinus' also demonstrate similar attention to physiognomic detail, with an interest in displaying 'Roman' qualities of 'sternness, honesty, gravity, experience', R.R.R. Smith, Hellenistic Sculpture, London, 1991, pp. 255-7, figs. 319 & 320. It is possible that this piece may be a 1st Century A.D. copy of a Republican original, as is the Copenhagen Pompey, cf. D. Kleiner, Roman Sculpture, Yale, 1992, pp.42-4, fig. 23. However the Donohue portrait displays a level of sensitive and expressive, albeit precise, Roman physiognomy, which the Pompey portrait loses in its Imperial rendering.

Category: Antiquities

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