A GREEK BRONZE ACHELOOS

CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 500-450 B.C.

Details

A GREEK BRONZE ACHELOOS
CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA 500-450 B.C.
The personification of the river represented as a bull with the head of a bearded man, standing on flat hooves, the right foreleg and the left hind leg advanced, with a ridged dewlap, short horns and projecting bull's ears, the poll enhanced by stamped crescentic locks, the almond-shaped eyes beneath thick upper lids, with a large nose and slightly smiling mouth
3 1/8 in. (7.9 cm.) long

Provenance

An American Private Collection.
with Robin Symes, London.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1989.

Literature

C.C. Vermeule and J.M. Eisenberg, Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Bronzes in the Collection of John Kluge, New York and Boston, 1992, no. 88-87.
J.J. Herrmann, "From Olympus to the Underworld, Ancient Bronzes from the John W. Kluge Collection," Minerva, vol. 7, no. 2, 1996, fig. 1.

Exhibited

From Olympus to the Underworld, Ancient Bronzes from the John W. Kluge Collection, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 26 March - 23 June 1996.

Lot Essay

For another bronze figure of Acheloos, probably from South Italy and perhaps slightly earlier in date, see no. 92 in Padgett, The Centaur's Smile, The Human Animal in Early Greek Art. Padgett informs (op. cit., pp. 333-334) that "Acheloos is not a common subject among Greek bronze statuettes." "The personification of rivers as man-headed bulls is an Archaic tradition for which Near Eastern prototypes have been suggested. Acheloos is commonly represented in this way in Greek art, becoming the quintessential Greek river god. Man-headed bulls also appear on the coins of South Italy and Sicily, notably those of Gela and Katane, representing not Acheloos but the river gods Gelas and Amenanos respectively."

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