拍品专文
This over life-sized janiform herm is composed of the opposing heads of the god Bacchus and the Cretan princess Ariadne. Both are depicted with parted lips, a long straight nose and large eyes with drilled pupils and irises. Bacchus wears a fillet across the forehead which ties down his centrally-parted long wavy hair, and a wreath of ivy leaves with two bunches of berries over the forehead; vine leaves and bunches of grape hang behind the ears. Ariadne is depicted with softer, rounder features, her centrally-parted hair adorned with bunches of berries above the forehead and grapes above the shoulders.
As C.C. Mattusch notes (p. 179 in Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples), herms served a variety of functions in antiquity. In the Greek world, herms (named after Hermes) were primarily apotropaic in nature, serving as protectors of travelers, cities and homes and were placed on street corners, doorways and other boundaries. In the Roman era – especially at sites like Pompeii – herms came to be adorned with portraits of poets, philosophers, statesman and other deities where they were used as decorative adjuncts in niches or mounted around pools and gardens.
The term 'janiform' derives from the Roman divinity Janus, the god of doors and openings, who is usually depicted with two heads back to back. In this case the two characters depicted are a divine couple: in the myth of Bacchus (Dionysus in Greek mythology) and Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete, is abandoned by the hero Theseus on the island of Naxos after helping him escape the labyrinth. Heartbroken, she is discovered by Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry, who falls in love with her. Bacchus comforts Ariadne and later marries her, granting her immortality.
Herms representing Dionysus are a common type. The god’s association with nature, as well as relaxation and leisure, made him a fitting choice for garden ornamentation. A smaller but similar janiform herm of a young beardless Dionysus and Ariadne, with bunches of grapes adorning their hair is now in the collection of the Museo Gregoriano Profano in Rome, Inv.-Nr. 4600, see S. Seiler, Beobachtungen an Doppelhermen unter Ausschluß der Porträts, 1969, p. 117, no. 167 (Arachne database no. 1081640). For another example of a janiform herm representing an older bearded Bacchus and his spouse Ariadne see M. Borda, Monumenti archeologici tuscolani nel Castello di Agliè, Rome, 1943, p. 14, no. 7, pl. 12 (Arachne database no. 1060417).
Somerset Struben de Chair (1911–1995) was a British author, politician, and army officer. He served as a Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk from 1935 to 1945 and during World War II, he was an intelligence officer in the British Army, serving in the Middle East.
In his 1988 memoir, Morning Glory, de Chair recounts how he noticed the herm in the shop window of an antiques dealer called Ohan, opposite the King David Hotel, while posted in Jerusalem in 1940 (S. S. de Chair, Morning Glory: Memoirs from the Edge of History, Devon, 1988, p. 169). Shortly after finalising the purchase of the herm, de Chair left Jerusalem for another engagement in Syria near the ancient site of Palmyra where he was wounded on the 21 June 1941.
After being evacuated back to Jerusalem to convalesce, de Chair managed to obtain the export license for the herm, which was transported to the Rockefeller Museum where a full-size plaster cast was taken before being shipped to England (S. S. de Chair, Buried Pleasure, Devon, 1985, pp. 15-16).
Somerset de Chair lived between 1944 and 1949 at Chilham Castle in Kent, where the herm was displayed in the main entrance hall. When the family left Chilham Castle the herm went in storage until 1954, when it was moved to the new home at St Osyth's Priory in Essex until de Chair's death in 1995.
Although the exact time of discovery and find-spot of the herm have not been recorded, de Chair writes in his memoirs that the sculpture had been found in the ancient site of Beth Shean, or Beit She'an, in northern Israel.
Beth Shean became a historically significant centre due to its strategic position connecting the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley. The site has been inhabited since the 5th millennium B.C., and over the centuries, it was controlled by Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Greeks, and Romans. Under Roman rule, Beth Shean, known as Scythopolis, became a major city of the Decapolis, a league of ten Hellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, with impressive architecture, including a grand theater, bathhouses, and colonnaded streets.
The site was first excavated between 1921-1933, by C.S. Fisher, A. Rowe and G.M. FitzGerald from the University of Pennsylvania, and it is possible that this double herm was discovered after the excavations in the late 1930s.
The lot is accompanied by glass photographic plates made around 1940 in Jerusalem, which document the condition of the herm at the time of purchase.
As C.C. Mattusch notes (p. 179 in Pompeii and the Roman Villa: Art and Culture Around the Bay of Naples), herms served a variety of functions in antiquity. In the Greek world, herms (named after Hermes) were primarily apotropaic in nature, serving as protectors of travelers, cities and homes and were placed on street corners, doorways and other boundaries. In the Roman era – especially at sites like Pompeii – herms came to be adorned with portraits of poets, philosophers, statesman and other deities where they were used as decorative adjuncts in niches or mounted around pools and gardens.
The term 'janiform' derives from the Roman divinity Janus, the god of doors and openings, who is usually depicted with two heads back to back. In this case the two characters depicted are a divine couple: in the myth of Bacchus (Dionysus in Greek mythology) and Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Crete, is abandoned by the hero Theseus on the island of Naxos after helping him escape the labyrinth. Heartbroken, she is discovered by Bacchus, the god of wine and revelry, who falls in love with her. Bacchus comforts Ariadne and later marries her, granting her immortality.
Herms representing Dionysus are a common type. The god’s association with nature, as well as relaxation and leisure, made him a fitting choice for garden ornamentation. A smaller but similar janiform herm of a young beardless Dionysus and Ariadne, with bunches of grapes adorning their hair is now in the collection of the Museo Gregoriano Profano in Rome, Inv.-Nr. 4600, see S. Seiler, Beobachtungen an Doppelhermen unter Ausschluß der Porträts, 1969, p. 117, no. 167 (Arachne database no. 1081640). For another example of a janiform herm representing an older bearded Bacchus and his spouse Ariadne see M. Borda, Monumenti archeologici tuscolani nel Castello di Agliè, Rome, 1943, p. 14, no. 7, pl. 12 (Arachne database no. 1060417).
Somerset Struben de Chair (1911–1995) was a British author, politician, and army officer. He served as a Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk from 1935 to 1945 and during World War II, he was an intelligence officer in the British Army, serving in the Middle East.
In his 1988 memoir, Morning Glory, de Chair recounts how he noticed the herm in the shop window of an antiques dealer called Ohan, opposite the King David Hotel, while posted in Jerusalem in 1940 (S. S. de Chair, Morning Glory: Memoirs from the Edge of History, Devon, 1988, p. 169). Shortly after finalising the purchase of the herm, de Chair left Jerusalem for another engagement in Syria near the ancient site of Palmyra where he was wounded on the 21 June 1941.
After being evacuated back to Jerusalem to convalesce, de Chair managed to obtain the export license for the herm, which was transported to the Rockefeller Museum where a full-size plaster cast was taken before being shipped to England (S. S. de Chair, Buried Pleasure, Devon, 1985, pp. 15-16).
Somerset de Chair lived between 1944 and 1949 at Chilham Castle in Kent, where the herm was displayed in the main entrance hall. When the family left Chilham Castle the herm went in storage until 1954, when it was moved to the new home at St Osyth's Priory in Essex until de Chair's death in 1995.
Although the exact time of discovery and find-spot of the herm have not been recorded, de Chair writes in his memoirs that the sculpture had been found in the ancient site of Beth Shean, or Beit She'an, in northern Israel.
Beth Shean became a historically significant centre due to its strategic position connecting the Jordan River Valley and the Jezreel Valley. The site has been inhabited since the 5th millennium B.C., and over the centuries, it was controlled by Egyptians, Canaanites, Israelites, Greeks, and Romans. Under Roman rule, Beth Shean, known as Scythopolis, became a major city of the Decapolis, a league of ten Hellenistic cities on the eastern frontier of the Roman Empire, with impressive architecture, including a grand theater, bathhouses, and colonnaded streets.
The site was first excavated between 1921-1933, by C.S. Fisher, A. Rowe and G.M. FitzGerald from the University of Pennsylvania, and it is possible that this double herm was discovered after the excavations in the late 1930s.
The lot is accompanied by glass photographic plates made around 1940 in Jerusalem, which document the condition of the herm at the time of purchase.