Ca. early 2nd century.
Height 42.5 cm. Christie’s Fine Art Auction House, New York
Portrait bust of a priest.
Ca. early 2nd century.
Height 42.5 cm.
Christie’s Fine Art Auction House, New York.
Provenance:
European Private Collection, 1995.
Anonymous sale; Christies, New York, 8 June 2007, lot 168.
Christie’s Fine Art Auction House, New York, Rockefeller Plaza. Sale 2174 Lot 180, 3 June 2009.
Estimate: $100,000—
A ROMAN MARBLE PORTRAIT BUST OF A PRIEST
CIRCA EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Lifesized, depicting a distinguished man of middle age, his head turned to his right, wearing a tunic with V-shaped folds at the front and a thick mantle draped over his left shoulder, with naturalistic physiognomy, including a creased forehead, a knitted brow, a blunt, rounded nose, deep-set unarticulated eyes with thick lids, shallow under-eye bags and pronounced naso-labial folds, his full beard and mustache closely cropped, his head bald but for thick wavy locks at the sides and a small tuft at the top of his forehead, crowned with a cylindrical diadem of overlapping leaves.
16¾ in. (42.5 cm) high.
Lot Notes
The diadem worn here, cylindrical in form with overlapping leaves, either laurel or olive, most likely represents a gold original. Such diadems signified that the wearer held a priestly office. For a similar diadem on a portrait of a priest see the example at The Ashmolean Museum, pp. 5—
