Lot Essay
For related vessels see nos. 237-242 in Snowden, "Greco-Roman Antiquity" in Vercoutter, et al., The Image of the Black in Western Art, vol. I.
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HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.
Details
A GREEK BRONZE FIGURAL VASE
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.
In the form of the head of a youthful African, with a broad face and wide nose, the full lips perhaps once overlaid with silver, the eyes inlaid in silver with the irises indicated, the hair above the forehead and ears arranged in tight curls, the back of the vessel with shallow vertical striations, the top of the vessel with a wide circular opening, perhaps once fitted with a separately-made lid
3½ in. (8.9 cm.)
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.
In the form of the head of a youthful African, with a broad face and wide nose, the full lips perhaps once overlaid with silver, the eyes inlaid in silver with the irises indicated, the hair above the forehead and ears arranged in tight curls, the back of the vessel with shallow vertical striations, the top of the vessel with a wide circular opening, perhaps once fitted with a separately-made lid
3½ in. (8.9 cm.)
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 2 December 1988, lot 116.
with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1989.
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. 89-42.
Exhibited
From Olympus to the Underworld, Ancient Bronzes from the John W. Kluge Collection, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 26 March - 23 June 1996.