Francesca Hickin
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Lot 111*
A Roman bronze Cautes or Cautopates
28 November 2017, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street£6,000 - £8,000
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A Roman bronze Cautes or Cautopates
Circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
Depicted standing with his weight on his left leg, wearing a tall peaked cap with lappets, and a short tunic over tight trousers, a belt holding the tunic in place at the waist, and a long himation draped over the left shoulder, the right arm outstretched to present a patera, the left arm relaxed with the index finger pointing downwards, once holding a now-missing implement, probably a torch, 16.8cm high
Circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
Depicted standing with his weight on his left leg, wearing a tall peaked cap with lappets, and a short tunic over tight trousers, a belt holding the tunic in place at the waist, and a long himation draped over the left shoulder, the right arm outstretched to present a patera, the left arm relaxed with the index finger pointing downwards, once holding a now-missing implement, probably a torch, 16.8cm high
Footnotes
Provenance:
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 10-11 December 1984, lot 262.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York (Art of the Ancient World, IV, 1986, p. 106, no. 300).
E. K. collection, Canton, Michigan, acquired from the above in 1987.
Exhibited:
Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Madison County, IN, 1987-1996.
Ball State University Art Museum, Muncie, IN, 1996-2005.
Cautes and Cautopates are the torch-bearing attendants of the god Mithras. Usually depicted standing either side of the god, Cautes holds his torch up and Cautopates down, representing dichotomies such as the equinoxes or the sunrise and the sunset. See M. Clauss, The Roman Cult of Mithras. The God and his Mysteries, Edinburgh, 2000, pp. 87-95.
Clearly characterised as an eastern god by his clothes and especially his Phrygian cap, Mithras was one of the eastern cults that spread across the Roman Empire from the 1st Century A.D.. Popular among the military, shrines have been found as far as Hadrian's Wall in Britain.