CIRCA LATE 1ST-EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN MARBLE BUST OF A BEARDED DEITY
CIRCA LATE 1ST-EARLY 2ND CENTURY A.D.
Perhaps depicting a river god, over-lifesized, classicizing in style, his heard turned slightly to his right, with a smooth spade-shaped forehead, angular arching brows merging with the bridge of the nose, and heavy-lidded, convex, unarticulated eyes, the lips parted, with a long mustache and a massive beard formed of thick serpentine locks, incised and deeply-drilled, his long wavy hair center parted and bound in a fillet tied at the back of his head, with thick locks pulled back at the temples and tucked under the fillet behind his ears, and falling along the back of his neck to his shoulders, the bust finished to be set into a separately-made body
17 5/8 in. (44.7 cm.) high

Provenance

Evert Musch (1918-2007), painter and illustrator, The Netherlands, acquired in the early 1960s.

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Lot Essay

For complete examples of river gods see the personifications of the Tiber, nos. 15, 17, and 18 in R. Mambella, "Tiberis, Tiberinus," in LIMC, vol. VIII, and for other rivers, nos. 45 and 46 in C. Weiss, "Fluvii," in LIMC, vol. IV.

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