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Lot 106

A Romano-Egyptian bronze figure of Isis-Aphrodite

Antiquities
28 November 2019, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £5,500

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A Romano-Egyptian bronze figure of Isis-Aphrodite
Circa 1st Century B.C.-1st Century A.D.
Possibly a Ptolemaic queen or princess in the guise of the goddess, depicted nude and standing with her weight on her left leg, the right leg bent, her eyes articulated, wearing a nekhbet vulture headdress surmounted by a plumed lunar disc and ears of corn, her wavy hair centrally-parted and falling in tresses onto her shoulders, holding an apple in her upturned left hand, a foliate crown in her lowered right, 19.5cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Dr J. Dénier collection.
Mr A. collection, Paris, acquired prior to 1996.

Published:
F. Antonovich, Les Métamorphoses Divines d'Alexandre, Paris, 1996, p. 234.

Isis-Aphrodite holds the apple Aphrodite won in the Judgement of Paris contest, and wears Isis's plumed vulture-headdress crown. She also holds a foliate wreath, often associated with royalty. There is a closely-related bronze statuette in the Louvre, acc. no. Br386; see Wendy A. Cheshire, 'Aphrodite Cleopatra', JARCE, 43, 2007, p. 151-191, for a discussion of this genre of bronzes, which are all nude or partially draped Aphrodite figures adorned with an Egyptian headdress and with some of the insignia of the royal family. Cheshire posits that this type of bronze became popular in response to the close association of Ptolemaic queens and princesses with Aphrodite, though whether outright assimilation to the goddess can be discerned in such statues is still debated. For another similar statue, see an example in the British Museum, acc. no. 1907,0717.3, classified as simply Aphrodite.

Additional information

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