A ROMAN BRONZE FEMALE CENTAUR

CIRCA LATE 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN BRONZE FEMALE CENTAUR
CIRCA LATE 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.
Leaning back, her hind legs folded below her, her right foreleg straight, her left foreleg bent, the tip of the hoof touching the ground, her human torso nude and twisting slightly to her right, an animal skin tied around her neck and falling over her left shoulder and arm, her left arm outstretched and gripping a fruit laden attribute with ties that extend behind to her equine hindquarters, her head tilted back and turned to her right, her hair pulled up in an elaborate top-knot and loosely tied in a chignon, surmounting a rectangular fitting, perhaps from furniture
5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm.) high

Provenance

with Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, 1984.
with Old World Galleries, New York.

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. 84-4.

Lot Essay

Depictions of female centaurs are extremely rare in antiquity. The 2nd century A.D. writer Lucian of Samosata, in his Zeuxis or Antiochus (3-7), describes a painting by the 5th century B.C. painter Zeuxis of a female centaur, renowned for its novelty and innovative composition. A mosaic, perhaps based on this painting, was found at Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli and is now in Berlin (see no. 77 in Ramage and Ramage, Roman Art: Romulus to Constantine).

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