A ROMAN GILT-BRONZE BUST OF A DIOSKOUROS

CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN GILT-BRONZE BUST OF A DIOSKOUROS
CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.
Recalling portraits of Alexander the Great, his head turned dramatically to his right and angled upward, his long upswept wavy hair arranged in thick unkempt locks, surmounted by a high pilos, depicted with idealized features, his oval face with slightly-parted full lips, the bulging brow merging with the bridge of the long straight nose, slightly downturned at the tip, the wide almond-shaped eyes with thick lids, a portion of his mantle draped over his left shoulder, a tenon preserved at the back for attachment; the letter "D" engraved in the back in retrograde, perhaps indicating that this was part of a set of at least four, lettered serially
5½ in. (14 cm.) high

Provenance

with N. Koutoulakis, Paris and Geneva.
Christos G. Bastis, New York, prior to 1987.
The Christos G. Bastis Collection; Sotheby's, New York, 9 December 1999, lot 128.

Literature

D. von Bothmer, et al., Antiquities from the Collection of Christos G. Bastis, New York, 1987, no. 138.

Exhibited

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Antiquities from the Collection of Christos G. Bastis, 20 November 1987 - 10 January 1988.

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Lot Essay

The style and pathos exhibited in this bust, as well as the idealized features and the upswept tresses, are, as von Bothmer notes (op. cit., p. 234), "strongly influenced by those associated with Alexander the Great." The intense turn of the head can be found on other depictions of the Dioskouroi, most famously in the twins from the Temple of Castor and Pollux at the Circus Flaminius in Rome, now placed at the edge of Michelangelo's Campidoglio (see no. 57, p. 494 in Gury, "Dioskouroi/Castores," in LIMC). See also the bronze of a Dioskouros, no. 71, p. 69 in Comstock and Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan & Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This can be interpreted as a double heroic allusion to both the Dioskouroi and Alexander, imbuing the viewer and the owner with this epic connection. The extensive gilding, the impressive size, and the martial nature of the subject, suggest that it may have been suited for a triumphal or imperial context.

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