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Lot Essay
Pavonazzetto (Marmor Phrygium in Latin) is a fine grained marble with purplish veins and inclusions, which historically was imported to Rome from Docimium (located in central Phrygia in Asia Minor). Due to the quarries of this distinctive marble being hundreds of kilometres from navigable waterways, this stone was extremely expensive in antiquity. Despite this, or perhaps as a result, pavonazzetto was particularly fashionable from the 1st Century A.D. onwards, when it was most commonly employed for the carving of supporting statues representing an Oriental type of figure dressed in foreign costume (such as the present example). The heads, necks, upper bust and hands of figures such as this would have been made of another material, probably white marble. Usually the hands are bound, probably in order to reflect the subject's conquered state, yet sometimes they hold a ladle.
Although polychrome marble was known in the ancient world from Egypt, the Near East and the Hellenistic kingdoms, its use increased beyond measure with the first Roman emperor, Augustus. The quantities and types of marble were unheard of; used on architecture and sculpture, from grand public buildings to domestic settings. Its use quickly spread throughout the empire and played an important role in reflecting Imperial power-play and supremacy. The Basilica of St. Paul in the centre of Rome epitomises the lavish use of polychrome marble, from the columns and pavements to the sculpture within, which once boasted more than 20 over-life size figures in oriental costume. As R. M. Schneider mentions in 'Coloured Marble, the Splendour and Power of Imperial Rome', Apollo Magazine, July 2001, pp. 3-10, 'the statues of Orientals made of exotic polychromes were of central importance in the use of coloured marble in Roman sculpture, but they also constituted one of the most striking symbols of Roman power. A new peak was reached under Trajan (98-117 A.D.)...Now statues of the recently subdued Dacians were set up, depicted with barbaric faces and in actual submission'.
The inspiration for this sculpture might have been the series of monumental bound Dacian prisoners that decorated Trajan's Forum in Rome, many of which were likewise sculpted in Marmor Phrygium, cf. M. De Nuccio and L. Ungaro, I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale, Rome, 2003, pp. 333-340, nos 31-40. For a statue in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, of different marble but similar stone cf. no. 2000.1053.
Although polychrome marble was known in the ancient world from Egypt, the Near East and the Hellenistic kingdoms, its use increased beyond measure with the first Roman emperor, Augustus. The quantities and types of marble were unheard of; used on architecture and sculpture, from grand public buildings to domestic settings. Its use quickly spread throughout the empire and played an important role in reflecting Imperial power-play and supremacy. The Basilica of St. Paul in the centre of Rome epitomises the lavish use of polychrome marble, from the columns and pavements to the sculpture within, which once boasted more than 20 over-life size figures in oriental costume. As R. M. Schneider mentions in 'Coloured Marble, the Splendour and Power of Imperial Rome', Apollo Magazine, July 2001, pp. 3-10, 'the statues of Orientals made of exotic polychromes were of central importance in the use of coloured marble in Roman sculpture, but they also constituted one of the most striking symbols of Roman power. A new peak was reached under Trajan (98-117 A.D.)...Now statues of the recently subdued Dacians were set up, depicted with barbaric faces and in actual submission'.
The inspiration for this sculpture might have been the series of monumental bound Dacian prisoners that decorated Trajan's Forum in Rome, many of which were likewise sculpted in Marmor Phrygium, cf. M. De Nuccio and L. Ungaro, I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale, Rome, 2003, pp. 333-340, nos 31-40. For a statue in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, of different marble but similar stone cf. no. 2000.1053.