A ROMAN MARBLE BUST OF SERAPIS

CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE BUST OF SERAPIS
CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.
The god with his characteristic full beard and thick multi-tiered locks falling to his shoulders, a circular plinth at the crown of the head atop a row of shorter curls for attachment of now-missing modius, wearing a chiton with heavy folds, a himation draped over his left shoulder, the bust surmounting an orb atop an integral socle
13 3/8 in. (34 cm.) high

Provenance

with Joel Malter, Los Angeles, 1994.
with Antiqua, Los Angeles, 1995 (Catalogue II, no. 64).
Antiquities, Christie's, New York, 18 December 1996, lot 137.

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Lot Essay

In the Roman period, the depiction of Serapis atop an orb may reference his association with Jupiter, the god of the heavens. Hadrian's attention to the refurbishment and upkeep of the Serapea of Alexandria and the Campus Martius, as well as his building of Serapea at Pergamon and his villa at Tivoli, increased the god's profile in the early 2nd century and may have stimulated a demand for portable representations of the god.

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