A ROMAN BRONZE HEAD OF A YOUNG GOD OR CHILD

CIRCA FIRST HALF OF THE 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN BRONZE HEAD OF A YOUNG GOD OR CHILD
CIRCA FIRST HALF OF THE 1ST CENTURY A.D.
The divine being with pudgy cheeks and a small, rounded chin, his parted lips revealing the upper row of teeth, the bridge of his slender nose merging with his thin arching brows, the eyes once inlaid in silver, the irises indicated, his hair a mass of modelled and chased curling locks, a single lock on each cheek in front of his prominent ears
5 in. (12.2 cm.) high

Provenance

with Pino Donati, Lugano.
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. 89-76.

Lot Essay

The head from a complete statue of similar scale in the J. Paul Getty Museum, tentatively identified as the infant Dionysus, is remarkably similar in style to the Morven child, but for the addition of a foliate wreath (no. 144 in True, et al., A Passion for Antiquities: Ancient Art from the Collection of Barbara and Lawrence Fleischman). Another complete figure of a child in the Saint Louis Art Museum, also of similar scale and facial features, but with a different hair style, has been tentatively identified as the infant Hercules (no. 128 in Mitten and Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World).

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