A Roman marble head of Aelius
Lot 96* W
A Roman marble head of Lucius Aelius Caesar
£30,000 - 50,000
US$ 50,000 - 84,000
Auction Details
A Roman marble head of Aelius
Lot Details
A Roman marble head of Lucius Aelius Caesar
Antonine, mid-2nd Century A.D.
Over life-size, naturalistically carved with distinctively luxurious curly hair and beard, the lidded eyes with incised irises and drilled pupils, slightly turned gazing to his right, 13¾in (35cm) high, mounted

Footnotes

  • Provenance:
    Joseph S. Melchione Collection, California.
    Superior Galleries, California, 2 June 1996, lot 2167,
    Royal Athena Galleries, Art of the Ancient World, IV, 1985, 261.
    Earl of Pembroke Collection, England, (1654-1732).

    Literature:
    Lucius Aelius Caesar (A.D. 101-138) was the adopted son of the Emperor Hadrian and intended successor to the throne, but he died shortly before Hadrian in
    A.D. 138. His son Lucius Verus went on to co-rule with Marcus Aurelius in 161 until his death in 169.

    Aelius Verus is described in the Historia Augusta as a Rome-born nobleman of consular rank, his father's family originally from Etruria, Historia Augusta, Volume I, Loeb Classical Library No. 139, 1921, p.210.
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  1. Madeleine Perridge
    Specialist - Antiquities
    Bonhams
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