The Original Facebook: The Many Faces of Ancient Civilization
Before social media, ancient societies approximated the likeness and appearance of its citizenry through expertly carved portrait sculptures. Featured in our May 25th Antiquities & Ancient Art auction, lots 191-196 and 198-201 showcase the expert craftsmanship of these ancient sculptors. Join us as we explore the many faces of ancient civilization.
Lot 192 | A Roman Marble Head of Venus (Capitoline Type) | Estimate: $30,000 - $40,000
Appropriately for the ancient goddess of love and sensuality, one of the first statues of a nude woman in the Greek world was the Aphrodite from Knidos by the 4th century B.C. master-sculptor Praxiteles. Considered a shocking innovation at the time, the goddess was shown stepping out of the bath, coquettishly covering (as well as drawing attention to) her beautiful, bared body. The format was widely copied in the following centuries. Of the numerous Roman variations known, the so-called “Capitoline” type is thought to be the most faithful to the Greek original. Inclined slightly downwards and to the left, this head surely belonged to a full-length statue of that type. The languorous eyelids, slightly parted lips, and wavy locks piled upon the head all speak to a Roman treatment of the subject of the highest quality, perhaps once intended for a lavish garden setting.
Lot 193 | A Roman Marble Portrait Head of a Veiled Woman | Estimate: $25,000 - $35,000
Showing the smooth countenance of a woman, this sculpted head is timeless by design. Once part of a life-sized statue, the voluminous folds of the woman’s mantle would have draped around her body and shoulders before being drawn up at the rear to partially cover her hair in a gesture signaling piety and modesty. The coiffure itself is an ornate configuration of curly strands rolled into rows, pulled back from the brow, and gathered behind in a chignon, creating a ribbed effect termed by scholars as the melonfrisur (‘melon-hairdo’). This distinctive hairstyle originated in Late Classical Greece, where it was deployed to great effect by the master sculptor Praxiteles. Elements of the facial structure, too, reflect this epoch: a somewhat low, triangular forehead, the sharply defined line of the brows descending to a straight nose, and the heavily lidded almond-shaped eyes.
These elements were deployed throughout the Hellenistic and Roman periods for depictions of goddesses and queens. Here, the stark frontality suggests a Roman date as does the manner with which the running drill fully separates the lips. The surface is covered by a yellowed, oxidized patina which obscures a white marble with sugary crystals, characteristic of the Greek islands. Although Roman in manufacture, the spirit of the head - if not the material it was carved from - harkens back to the Hellenic past.
Lot 194 | A Roman Marble Portrait Bust of an Aristocratic Woman | Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000
This portrait is strikingly attractive because of the sitter’s delicate yet exotic features and her elaborate couiffure. The sculpture was produced during a formative and highly sophisticated phase of Roman art, and one whose portraits of women are much less common, than those from later Imperial times. The preparation for a patch at the back of the head is seemingly ancient. Although she remains anonymous, given the sculpture's scale and scope, one can assume it portrays a person of note, who wished to be represented with the ideal and distinctive features of a Roman aristocrat. For a comparable portrait bust, see Agrippina MInor at the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (Acc. no. 755).
Lot 195 | A Roman Marble Portrait Head of Julia Titi | Estimate: $35,000 - $55,000
Born to the highest echelons of the Flavian imperial family, Julia Flavia, more commonly known as Julia Titi, was the daughter of the emperor Titus (39 – 81 A.D.). She held an exalted position as such and was one of the very few women of the imperial family to wear a diadem in official numismatic portraiture. After the death of her patrician husband and later that of her father, she was integrated into the household of her paternal uncle Domitian, then emperor. Salacious (and likely apocryphal) accounts by detractors of her uncle report that she became his mistress and tragically died in her early 30s as a result of pregnancy from this alleged union.
Julia Titi was a famous beauty, and her portraits are the most attractive of the Flavian women. Surviving portraits of the princess, such as this one, bear this out. Here, her features are idealized, with a delicate heart-shaped face, large almond-shaped eyes, full lips with pronounced ‘cupid’s bow’, and serene brow. The Flavian hairstyle pioneered by her mother - a halo of curls over the brow, with deep drilling - is most appealing here: elegant, flattering, and more restrained. At the rear, what would have been a voluminous braided bun is summarily rendered. This example has most in common with the best-known of Julia Titi’s portraits now in the Museo Nazionale delle Terme in Rome.
Lot 198 | A Greek Marble Portrait Head of a Ruler | Estimate: $20,000 - $30,000
Two grooves along the top of this head originally held a royal diadem, presumably made of bronze, and indicates that the man represented is a ruler. A number of royal portraits can be grouped around the Egyptian Greek kings of the second and early first centuries B.C. (Ptolemies IV-VIII), but a precise identification is often difficult because many of these marble portraits were clearly reworked to represent the next king who seized power. In addition, some of the finer marble likenesses, including the head under consideration, were strongly idealized thus further hampering an accurate identification. The splendid series of royal portraits on Ptolemaic coins provides the best surviving evidence for pinpointing individual rulers. For a similar portrait head of Ptolemy IV, see H. Kyrieleis, Bildnisse der Ptolemäer, Berlin, 1975, p. 47 no. 171, Pl. 36.