Lot Essay
Metrodoros (331/0-278/7 B.C.) was a loyal pupil and friend of the philosopher, Epikouros, who he first came to know when the latter opened his philosophic school in Lampsakos, circa 309 B.C., cf. G. M. A. Richter, The Portraits of the Greeks, London, 1965, pp. 202-203, figs 1258-1267.
The identification of Metrodoros' portrait type is known by an inscribed double herm head of Metrodoros and Epikouros in the Capitoline Museum; there are, also, many other known portraits of Metrodoros. The original Greek portrait was probably carved during the first half of the 3rd Century B.C.
However, the statue which belonged to these portraits was identified by G. Lippold (Griechische Portratstatuen, 1912) as the above type which has, until now, been known in only three copies, all of which are headless. These are a slightly over life-size statue in the Ny Carlsberg, Glyptothek, I.N. 2685, and two large statuettes, one in the National Museum, Naples, inv. 6237 and the other at Newby Hall, Yorkshire. The above statuette is an important fourth addition to this little known group of representations of Metrodoros
The identification of Metrodoros' portrait type is known by an inscribed double herm head of Metrodoros and Epikouros in the Capitoline Museum; there are, also, many other known portraits of Metrodoros. The original Greek portrait was probably carved during the first half of the 3rd Century B.C.
However, the statue which belonged to these portraits was identified by G. Lippold (Griechische Portratstatuen, 1912) as the above type which has, until now, been known in only three copies, all of which are headless. These are a slightly over life-size statue in the Ny Carlsberg, Glyptothek, I.N. 2685, and two large statuettes, one in the National Museum, Naples, inv. 6237 and the other at Newby Hall, Yorkshire. The above statuette is an important fourth addition to this little known group of representations of Metrodoros