LATE REPUBLICAN PERIOD TO EARLY IMPERIAL PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GALLO-ROMAN LIMESTONE PORTRAIT HEAD OF A MAN
LATE REPUBLICAN PERIOD TO EARLY IMPERIAL PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 1ST CENTURY B.C.
11 1⁄2 in. (29.2 cm.) high

Provenance

Said to be from Béziers, France.
Louis Noguier (d. 1905), Béziers.
Jean Dardé, Béziers, acquired by 1925.
Private Collection, France.
Property from a French Private Collection; Antiquities, Sotheby's, New York, 10 December 2008, lot 48.
Fay Safani, New York.
Antiquities, Sotheby's, New York, 7 June 2012, lot 47.
The Cyrus Collection, Property of Fay Safani, New York; Antiquities, Bonhams, London, 24 October 2012, lot 234.

Literature

E. Espérandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs de la Gaule romaine, vol. IX, Paris, 1925, p. 181, no. 6878.
A. Blanchet, Carte archéologique de la Gaule romaine, pt. 10, Paris, 1946, p. 38, no. 16.
M. Clavel, Beziers et son territoire dans l'antiquite, Paris, 1970, p. 620, note 3.
Arachne Online Database no. 38261.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Hannah Fox Solomon Head of Department, Specialist

hsolomon@christies.com +1 212 636 2256

Lot Essay

This verisitic portrait of an older man is typical of the style popular in the Roman Republican period. Aspects of his age are emphasized, including his receding hairline, creased forehead, furrowed brow, pronounced crow's feet, nasolabial folds and fleshy jowels. Though the style is purely Roman, the limestone from which it is scultped is characteristic of local production in Transalpine Gaul.

This portrait was said to have been found near Béziers, ancient Baeterrae. While the site was occupied since the 8th century B.C., it became a Roman colony (Colonia Urbs Julia Baeterrae Septimanorum) in 36-35 B.C. for the veterans of Legio VII, and continued to prosper under the Emperior Augustus and beyond.

More from Antiquities

View All