.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This distinctive Roman marble head of a satyr is sculpted from rosso antico — a fine grained, highly-compacted limestone ranging in color from a light red to a dark purple quarried in Taenarum, modern day Cape Matapan in the Peloponnese (see pp. 95-97 in M.L. Anderson and L. Nista, eds., Radiance in Stone: Sculptures in Colored Marble from the Museo Nazionale Romano). He is depicted with prominent features including a fleshy chin and cheeks, wavy hair and characteristic pointed ears; two small horns emerge from his forehead right below the hairline. The head is mounted on a circa 18th century rosso antico bust with a marble pedestal.
According to A. Scholl (op. cit.) the satyr type presented here is based on a Hellenistic original known from at least five extant Roman copies, including one in the Villa Albani, Rome (see pp. 342-346 in P. C. Bol, ed., Forschungen zur Villa Albani: Katalog der antiken Bildwerke, vol. I). As Scholl’s analysis was based solely on black and white photographs taken at Althorp in 1973 by Raoul Laev, he incorrectly noted that the work was constructed of marble.
This bust was likely collected by John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer (1734-1783) during his Grand Tour in the 1760s. Like their relatives, the Dukes of Marlborough, the Spencers were voracious collections of ancient art. The notebooks of John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), preserved in the British Library, recount his penchant for the ancient world and his travels around Italy. Althorp, the Spencer’s ancestral home in West Northamptonshire where this bust resided until at least 1973, was also home to Lady Diana Spencer from the early 1970s until her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1981.
According to A. Scholl (op. cit.) the satyr type presented here is based on a Hellenistic original known from at least five extant Roman copies, including one in the Villa Albani, Rome (see pp. 342-346 in P. C. Bol, ed., Forschungen zur Villa Albani: Katalog der antiken Bildwerke, vol. I). As Scholl’s analysis was based solely on black and white photographs taken at Althorp in 1973 by Raoul Laev, he incorrectly noted that the work was constructed of marble.
This bust was likely collected by John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer (1734-1783) during his Grand Tour in the 1760s. Like their relatives, the Dukes of Marlborough, the Spencers were voracious collections of ancient art. The notebooks of John, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758-1834), preserved in the British Library, recount his penchant for the ancient world and his travels around Italy. Althorp, the Spencer’s ancestral home in West Northamptonshire where this bust resided until at least 1973, was also home to Lady Diana Spencer from the early 1970s until her marriage to Charles, Prince of Wales, in 1981.