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A Roman marble portrait head of a boy image 1
A Roman marble portrait head of a boy image 2
Lot 102*

A Roman marble portrait head of a boy

Antiquities
7 December 2021, 12:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

£22,000 - £26,000

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A Roman marble portrait head of a boy
Circa early-mid 1st Century A.D.
The youthful features framed by heavy fringed hair, falling in curls at the nape of the neck, the crown of the head with three central plaits, from which a jewelled pendant is suspended, the child's softly carved slightly asymmetric features depicted with large rimmed eyes and full lips, 25cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private collection, Switzerland, prior to 1981.

Published:
A. Geyer, 'Ein wiederverwendetes Knabenporträt', Meded. Rom., vol. 23, 1981, p. 101-106, pl. 34-35.

Geyer notes a portrait head of the young Nero in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek as a parallel to the above lot, reproduced in F. Johansen, Catalogue Roman Portraits, vol. I, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 1994, p.158, no.67, and also makes comparisons with another head of Nero in Rome (Museo Nazionale Romano, Museo delle Terme / Thermenmuseum, Inv. Nr. 618). Cf. also a statue of a young princess, discovered during underwater excavations at Baiae, and dating again to the Neronian Period, who wears an almost identical jewelled pendant in her hair, which is styled to copy Nero's own (Museum Archaeologico die Campo Flegrei nel Castello di Baia, recently exhibited as part of the 'Nero' exhibition in the British Museum). This statue has been suggested to be an idealised portrait of Claudia Augusta, Nero's daughter by his second wife Poppaea Sabina; perhaps the present lot also depicts a close member of the Imperial family.

There appears to have been some re-cutting to the hair of this portrait in Antiquity, as per the Geyer article. In an article about the re-cutting of portrait heads John Pollini comments that it was a relatively common practice in Antiquity, particularly in the case of disgraced Roman emperors and their families who, often as part of damnatio memoriae, had their sculptures defaced or re-cut; see J. Pollini, 'Recutting Roman Portraits: Problems in Interpretation and the New Technology in Finding Possible Solutions', in Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, vol. 55, 2010, p.24-44. Nero suffered damnatio memoriae by Senate decree after his death in 68 A.D.

Additional information

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