Lot 106
106
A PROTO-BACTRIAN COPPER ALLOY HEROIC FIGURE
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more PROPERTY FROM THE STANFORD PLACE COLLECTION OF ANTIQUITIES SOLD BY ORDER OF THE TRUSTEES
A PROTO-BACTRIAN COPPER ALLOY HEROIC FIGURE

LATE 3RD-2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.

Details
A PROTO-BACTRIAN COPPER ALLOY HEROIC FIGURE
LATE 3RD-2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
Standing with knees flexed and feet tilted up, with muscular torso and arms by his sides with clenched fists, wearing short fringed kilt rolled and tied at the hip, with long hair falling in three braids down his back, with moustache and long beard curled at the pierced tip, mounted
6 in. (15.2 cm.) high
Provenance
Acquired on the London art market, early 1990s; by repute formerly in a European private collection.
Exhibited
On loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1999-2001.
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. Please note that the lots of Iranian origin are subject to U.S. trade restrictions which currently prohibit the import into the United States. Similar restrictions may apply in other countries.

Lot Essay

This powerful figure with his fists clenched, as though raising a heavy load, is reminiscent of that equally powerful proto-Elamite figure of a lion-headed demon on loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art (L48.7.9). With his long braided hair and strong muscular body, impervious to hardship, it is tempting to identify him with the wild hero of Near Eastern mythology, Enkidu (or earlier Enbani/Enkita) who, in the Epic of Gilgamesh, accompanied the eponymous hero on his journeying to defeat the demon Humbaba and the dreaded Bull of Heaven sent against them by the goddess Ishtar.

Cf. J. Aruz (ed.), Art of the First Cities, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003, pp. 44-47, nos. 14 and 15a/b, for two Proto-Elamite bearded 'shamanic' figures in arsenical copper representing horned demons.
See illustrations opposite and on following pages.

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