Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 108

A Roman giallo antico marble herm head of Dionysus

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

Sold for £4,462.50 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Antiquities specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

A Roman giallo antico marble herm head of Dionysus
Circa 1st-2nd Century A.D.
The wavy hair dressed with a fillet and garlanded with berries, the youthful face with rimmed recessed eyes and slightly parted lips, 15.5cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
with J.-P. Mariaud de Serres, Paris.
Private collection, France, acquired from the above 13 September 1996.

Giallo antico was quarried by the ancient Romans at Chemtou (Simitthus) in North Africa. The yellow marble was considered to be precious and opulent, and was widely used during the 1st-2nd Centuries in both the Imperial and private households. For a herm of Dionysus in giallo antico cf. M De Nuccio & L Ungaro, i marmami colorati della Roma imperiale, Rome, 2002, p.378, fig.79, Museo Nazionale Romano, Roma, inv. n. 4252.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone with dedication inscription of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin

A small Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone inscribed for King Sin-Kashid of Uruk

A Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Hittite bronze helmet with pelta-shaped cheek-pieces

An Attic pottery tankard with geometric decoration

A Greek pottery alabastron in the form of a greaved leg

A Greek terracotta female figure with a bird perched on her shoulder