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Lot Essay
This enormous, curved bronze fitting, cast in one piece, was once attached to the port side of the upper part of the bow of a war ship, called a liburna (bireme). Emerging from the smooth background is a bust of a youthful Ariadne, wearing a tunic, with her head slightly inclined to her right. She wears a wreath of ivy in her center-parted hair, with two long corkscrew curls terminating in fishtails falling on either side of her neck. Surmounting her head is a large suspension loop, and there are four holes along the perimeter that would have secured the fitting to the ship.
A related figural ornament is seen on the Roman marble relief of a bireme from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, circa 120 B.C., now in the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican (see pl. 12.2 in D.B. Saddington, "The Evolution of the Roman Imperial Fleets," in P. Erdkamp, ed., A Companion to the Roman Army). As for the identity of the goddess depicted on the fitting presented here, while Minerva and Juno had previously been suggested (see Schörle, op. cit., p. 106), comparison to the two bronze ship fittings found in the Mahdia shipwreck, one depicting Dionysos, the other Ariadne, similarly with ivy in her hair, there can be no doubt that Ariadne was intended (see H.G. Horn, “Dionysos und Ariadne, Zwei Zierbeschläge aus dem Schiffsfund von Mahdia,” in G.H. Salies, et al., Das Wrack: Der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia, pp. 451-467). The Mahdia fittings are thought to have been cargo rather than attached to the ship.
A related figural ornament is seen on the Roman marble relief of a bireme from the Temple of Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste, circa 120 B.C., now in the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican (see pl. 12.2 in D.B. Saddington, "The Evolution of the Roman Imperial Fleets," in P. Erdkamp, ed., A Companion to the Roman Army). As for the identity of the goddess depicted on the fitting presented here, while Minerva and Juno had previously been suggested (see Schörle, op. cit., p. 106), comparison to the two bronze ship fittings found in the Mahdia shipwreck, one depicting Dionysos, the other Ariadne, similarly with ivy in her hair, there can be no doubt that Ariadne was intended (see H.G. Horn, “Dionysos und Ariadne, Zwei Zierbeschläge aus dem Schiffsfund von Mahdia,” in G.H. Salies, et al., Das Wrack: Der antike Schiffsfund von Mahdia, pp. 451-467). The Mahdia fittings are thought to have been cargo rather than attached to the ship.