HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA MID 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK BRONZE GENRE FIGURE
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA MID 1ST CENTURY B.C.
Depicting a gaunt aged man standing hunched over, his neck straining forward, the veins on his neck and forehead accentuated, with an expressive face, furrowed brow and high cheekbones, his mouth agape, bald but for a patch of curls along his forehead and around the sides and back of his head, with a thick drooping mustache and tufted beard, his nostrils flaring, wearing a short belted tunic with overfold
14½ in. (37 cm.) high excluding the modern legs

Provenance

Acquired by the family of the present owner in the late 1940s-early 1950s.

Lot Essay

This figure can possibly be identified as a pedagogue by his stooped posture and old age. His face is expressive and illustrates the influence of the theater. However, he is far from grotesque, and instead has an aura of erudition and decorum. For a similar example in terracotta, wearing a himation and holding a bag of gaming pieces, now in the Louvre, see no. 81 in Pasquier and Aravantinos, et al., Tanagra, Myth et Archéologie.

An analysis and metallography report from Oxford Materials confirming authenticity accompanies this lot.

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