A GREEK MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A HELLENISTIC KING

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 3RD-2ND CENTURY B.C.

細節

A GREEK MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A HELLENISTIC KING
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 3RD-2ND CENTURY B.C.
From a composite statue, relating to depictions of Antiochus III (The Great), depicted with realistic angular features including a square chin, high cheek bones, sunken cheeks, a prominent mouth with fleshy undulating lips, and large almond-shaped eyes with heavy upper lids, his age displayed through his thick naso-labial folds and deep wrinkles along his neck, a vertical crease at the bridge of his nose between his eyes, his hairline receding high on his forehead, adorned with a rounded diadem
13¼ in. (33.7 cm.) high

來源

European Private Collection, acquired in the 1970s.

拍品專文

The scale of this portrait and his donning of the diadem indicate a royal subject. Although the physiognomy is not identical, this portrait relates closely to one identified as Antiochus III, now in the Louvre (see pl. 24, no. 30 in Smith, Hellenistic Royal Portraits). Note the similarities in the realism, the shape of the face, signs of age and the hair line.

Antiochus the Great sought to expand the Seleucid Empire to the borders that Alexander had achieved 100 years previously. He spent the majority of his career on campaigns to the Eastern portions of his realm in order to quell rebellion and re-establish Seleucid dominance. In 205 B.C. Antiochus made a secret pact with Philip V of Macedon for a partition of the Ptolemaic possessions, ruled at the time by the infant Ptolemy V. In pursuit of these lands, Antiochus was victorious in 198 B.C. at the battle of Panium, marking the end of Ptolemaic rule in Judea. Antiochus's son, Antiochus IV (Epiphanes), continued his father's campaigns into Judea, seeking to extirpate the Jews, as recorded in I Maccabees of the New Testament Apocrypha.