拍品專文
According to H. Brunn and P. Arndt (op. cit.), this portrait was known to have been on the market in Munich prior to the first World War, on offer by a Greek dealer, and was said to be from Thessaloniki. When Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint-Laurent acquired their house on rue Bonaparte in the late 1980s, the portrait was included, which was already on display in the garden.
Brunn and Arndt consider this portrait to depict a contemporary figure from the late Trajanic to early Hadrianic period as opposed to being a Roman copy of an earlier Greek portrait type. No other portrait of the individual is known from the Roman era, nor is this type known from Roman copies of Greek originals. However, the suggestion that this depicts an important Greek personality is compelling. The supposed northern Greek provenance might recommend that the person depicted is connected to the Macedonian royal family. Could this be a portrait of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, based on a lost original? Two very idealized heads are known that are ascribed to him (see the examples in the Vatican and in Copenhagen, nos. 142 and 145 in P. Moreno, Alessandro Magno, Immagini come storia), but neither conform to the distinctive ivory head found in his tomb at Vergina (see no. 13 in Moreno, op. cit.). The marble portrait presented here shares with the ivory the thick moustache that dips beyond the corners of the mouth, while the dramatic turn of the head and the very specific treatment of the curls that frame the forehead would argue in favor of an early Hellenistic date for the original.
Brunn and Arndt consider this portrait to depict a contemporary figure from the late Trajanic to early Hadrianic period as opposed to being a Roman copy of an earlier Greek portrait type. No other portrait of the individual is known from the Roman era, nor is this type known from Roman copies of Greek originals. However, the suggestion that this depicts an important Greek personality is compelling. The supposed northern Greek provenance might recommend that the person depicted is connected to the Macedonian royal family. Could this be a portrait of King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great, based on a lost original? Two very idealized heads are known that are ascribed to him (see the examples in the Vatican and in Copenhagen, nos. 142 and 145 in P. Moreno, Alessandro Magno, Immagini come storia), but neither conform to the distinctive ivory head found in his tomb at Vergina (see no. 13 in Moreno, op. cit.). The marble portrait presented here shares with the ivory the thick moustache that dips beyond the corners of the mouth, while the dramatic turn of the head and the very specific treatment of the curls that frame the forehead would argue in favor of an early Hellenistic date for the original.