A GREEK BRONZE PAPPOSILENOS

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK BRONZE PAPPOSILENOS
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.
Solid cast, standing with his sandalled feet together, his arms resting on his bulging belly beneath his enveloping hooded cloak, with a frontal vertical seam along its length, undulating vertical folds falling below his arms, the hood with a conical projection in back, his face with a bald pate, bulging brows, articulated eyes, a rounded pug nose and a full mustache overlapping his pointed beard
3 7/8 in. (9.8 cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Münzen und Medaillen, Basel, 6 May 1967, lot 35.
with Phoenix Ancient Art, Geneva and New York, 2007 (Exotics of the Classical World, no. 11).

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Lot Essay

The iconography of this figure is enigmatic. While the face is clearly that of Papposilenos, it may be that an actor is depicted. For a cloaked but not hooded Papposilenos, shouldering a goat, see no. 24 in Petit, Bronzes Antiques de la collection Dutuit. The style of the face is similar to that on a Papposilenos furniture support now in the Israel Museum, no. 98 in Muscarella, ed., Ancient Art, The Norbert Schimmel Collection. The form of the cloak recalls depictions of Telesphoros, the dwarf son of Asklepios see, for example, pp. 870-878 in Rühfel, "Telesphoros," LIMC.

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