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Lot Essay
Caught mid-step in a jaunty dance, the dwarf balances on his left foot with the right crossed in front, the opposing arm raised and right arm held akimbo, while his over-large phallus swings to nestle behind the front knee. The head is helmeted, with deep-set eyes beneath a furrowed brow, snubbed nose, and a prodigious beard brushed neatly from the cheeks in symmetrical locks. The positioning of the arms and legs in this distinctive dance pose is closely associated with numerous representations of dancing dwarfs (mostly small-scale bronzes), often accompanying their steps with crotalae (rhythm instruments akin to castanets).
The sculptural type is thought to have been invented in Hellenistic Alexandria and is associated with street performers there and became popular in domestic contexts in Republican and early Imperial Rome. The present dwarf’s beard and frontality of its execution are reminiscent of the Egyptian god Bes, as is the animal skin worn down the dancer’s back – both aspects further strengthening associations to Alexandrian performers and a cultivated “otherness” prized by Roman audiences. A large loop for suspension at the back of the neck with a ring drawn through it, a curved element with stylized tendrils and buds joining to the upper back projecting horizontally, and a slim, angled strut beneath the back foot indicate that this figure served as a decorative attachment, perhaps as part of a vessel.
For a similar example in Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, found at Portici on 6 April 1747 (inv no. 27734), see A. Mondadori, Eros in Antiquity, p. 123. For other related examples, see pls. 36.4 and 37.2-3 in A. Adriani, Repertorio d'arte dell'egitto greco-romano, Serie C and S. Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, vol. V, p. 308, no. 2. For the connotations of bronze dwarfs in Roman domestic interiors and incorporated into functional objects, see L.B. Stoner, “A Bronze Hellenistic Dwarf in the Metropolitan Museum,” The Metropolitan Museum Journal , vol. 50, pp. 98-99.
The sculptural type is thought to have been invented in Hellenistic Alexandria and is associated with street performers there and became popular in domestic contexts in Republican and early Imperial Rome. The present dwarf’s beard and frontality of its execution are reminiscent of the Egyptian god Bes, as is the animal skin worn down the dancer’s back – both aspects further strengthening associations to Alexandrian performers and a cultivated “otherness” prized by Roman audiences. A large loop for suspension at the back of the neck with a ring drawn through it, a curved element with stylized tendrils and buds joining to the upper back projecting horizontally, and a slim, angled strut beneath the back foot indicate that this figure served as a decorative attachment, perhaps as part of a vessel.
For a similar example in Naples, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, found at Portici on 6 April 1747 (inv no. 27734), see A. Mondadori, Eros in Antiquity, p. 123. For other related examples, see pls. 36.4 and 37.2-3 in A. Adriani, Repertorio d'arte dell'egitto greco-romano, Serie C and S. Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, vol. V, p. 308, no. 2. For the connotations of bronze dwarfs in Roman domestic interiors and incorporated into functional objects, see L.B. Stoner, “A Bronze Hellenistic Dwarf in the Metropolitan Museum,” The Metropolitan Museum Journal , vol. 50, pp. 98-99.