The moulded head with furrowed brow, pointed ears, a long beard and moustache, with red and black painted details.The temples of the Etruscans consisted of wooden  More »

The moulded head with furrowed brow, pointed ears, a long beard and moustache, with red and black painted details.The temples of the Etruscans consisted of wooden constructions on stone foundations, as in early Greece. But while the Greeks soon started to build lithic temples, the Etruscan adhered to their traditional method of construction until the Roman subjection. As early as the 7th century BC, the wooden frames were already protected by the external agents with clay tiles and terracotta revetment plaques. Quasi-horseshoe-shaped reliefs, or antefixes, were placed at the ends of the cover tiles above the eaves running along the sides of the roof.These protective revetments were at first painted, but soon they took the form of polychrome reliefs. Due to their fragility they frequently had to be replaced, although they were not allowed to leave the sanctuary precinct. Hence large quantities of architectural fragments have been preserved buried in special pits (bothroi) on the site.   « Less

The fresco features a majestic horse-like creature, known as hippocamp, gently carrying a beautiful female figure known as Nereid through the ocean waves. With her billowing  More »

The fresco features a majestic horse-like creature, known as hippocamp, gently carrying a beautiful female figure known as Nereid through the ocean waves. With her billowing garments and decisive grip on the steed’s muzzle, the Nereid seems to be holding on dedicatedly; her steed, his legs moving beneath the water, transports her with dedication. From a painterly perspective, this vignette is a multidimensional challenge and the artist has handled it exquisitely.This remarkable artwork, a roman wall painting executed in encaustic on plaster, a very difficult technique, is at once a telling record of the technical achievements of the Roman artists, and an evocation of the beauty anddelicacy of the mythological subjects that they often preferred in painting and sculpture.Roman wall paintings were typically executed in fresco, the technique of painting tempera-based pigments over freshly prepared wet plaster. As the plaster dried and hardened, it solidified into a single painted surface, the pigments secured into the matrix of the dry plaster. The fresco technique allows the painter to work quickly and assuredly on the wall surface, with broad strokes of the brush.   « Less

This beautiful balsamarium, with its rich even olive green patina and delightful attention to details, takes the form of a handsome youth. Although a number of balsamaria or  More »

This beautiful balsamarium, with its rich even olive green patina and delightful attention to details, takes the form of a handsome youth. Although a number of balsamaria or bronze oil vessels in the form of busts survive, few among these small portable objects bear portraits that can still be recognised today. Our work testifies to the power of imperial imagery and its dissemination as the vessel portrays Antinous, the youthful companion of the Emperor Hadrian. Cast in a sure and straightforward manner, the youth with long shaggy hair and full features became the official representation of Antinous. This work can be read on many levels as it masterfully blends the vessel’s utility with its subject’s sensuality.The balsamarium is cast in the shape of the upper body of a young man. He has a softly defined torso that stops above the waist. The sharply truncated arms recall the fashion in the portrait busts of the 2nd century AD. The bust sits atop a tall, elegantly proportioned foot that gives added weight to the work. The wonderfully curved arc of the handle is made in two parts and enhanced with leaf-like appendages. It is attached to the head by means of two small loops that project above the ears. These loops are secured by grape clusters, indicating a Dionysian association. When fully extended, the handle balances the height of the foot and frames the bust with an almost halo-like shape.   « Less

This bronze figure of a bull most likely had cultic connections, and was no doubt an object of worship in the cult of a deity with bovine associations. The range of time  More »

This bronze figure of a bull most likely had cultic connections, and was no doubt an object of worship in the cult of a deity with bovine associations. The range of time periods that this item may derive from lends it a number of possible connotations, from the Ptolemaic cult of Serapis to the Canaanite cult of El. Its limbs and its facial features are finely crafted, with an almost whimsical quality that belies its certainly sacred connotations. This image was a focus of reverence for those adherents who fashioned and employed this effigy.The connotations to the bull are numerous in the ancient Mediterranean. The great temple at Memphis, Egypt, contained the enclosure of the Apis bull, regarded as the oracle “herald” of the god Ptah. The cult of Apis probably traces back to the Old Kingdom, and was later transformed in the Ptolemaic period into the cult of Serapis. Zeus was told to have transformed himself into a bull during his pursuit of Europa. In the Holy Land, the Canaanite ancestors of the Israelites drew a connection between the high god, El, and bulls, and it was in Old Testament times that graven images such as this one were forbidden to the Israelites, being reminiscent of the golden calf that the newly freed i Israelites set up for worship during their time of doubt. All in all, in Classical Antiquity, the bull was a symbol of strength and fertility, and its connections with various pantheons and cultures were many. Regardless of what religious context this effigy derives from, it serves as a testament to the deep-set connection to bulls in the Mediterranean of Antiquity. This figure, whose exact derivation is still a mystery to us, most certainly carries with it the historical fingerprints of ancient peoples who looked upon it as a source of spiritual comfort and confidence amid the unpredictable world of early agrarian civilization. - (LO.933)   « Less

The ancient inhabitants of Cyprus started producing pottery during the latter part of the Neolithic period, in the middle of the 5th millennium BC. Imagination and exuberance  More »

The ancient inhabitants of Cyprus started producing pottery during the latter part of the Neolithic period, in the middle of the 5th millennium BC. Imagination and exuberance characterize the early and middle Bronze Age ceramics produced in Cyprus. The vases were handmade, as the wheel was only introduced around 2600 BC, richly decorated and with shapes based on zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures as well as composite vessel forms.Red polished ware made its appearance during the Early Cypriot I period, introduced by emigrants from Anatolia who settled in the island soon after the middle of the 3rd millennium BC. The surface was covered with red slip (a specially prepared clay solution) and burnished creating a lustrous appearance. The final colour of the vessel depended on the amount of iron oxide in the solution (more for red, less for black) and the temperature and condition of firing. Sometimes linear motifs, incised before firing, decorated the vessel. Lime, applied after firing, was used to fill the incisions and creating a contrast to the red background. By the end of the 3rd millennium into the beginning of the 1st potters started fashioning red polished ware with ornaments consisting of motifs- such as human figures, quadrupeds, birds, bucrania and snakes, in relief or in the round. In addition to flasks, jugs and bowls, some vessels featured applied animals and composite zoomorphs modelled in the round and in a few cases portrayed in actual scenes of activities such as ploughing, bread- making or grape-pressing.   « Less

Aphrodite was the symbol of female beauty and Goddess of Love, identified in Rome with Venus. Although Homer describes Aphrodite as the daughter of Zeus and Dion, the more  More »

Aphrodite was the symbol of female beauty and Goddess of Love, identified in Rome with Venus. Although Homer describes Aphrodite as the daughter of Zeus and Dion, the more popular view was that she was conceived in the foam of the ocean from the seed of Uranus. Dropped there when he was castrated, her name meaning "foam-born". Aphrodite was married to Hephaestus, but she loved Ares and she was known for her many love affairs; she also had affairs with various mortals - Adonis, Phaon, Anchises (by whom she bore Aeneias).Aphrodite, the most beautiful woman in the world, inspired lust in all the humans and other creatures of the planet. No one could escape the traps that she set to amuse herself with the doings of love-crazed men and women. The passion which she planted in the human soul was the force that propelled fertilization and reproduction (Venus Genetrix). Her symbols were the laurel, the pomegranate, the dove, the swan, the hare and the ram, all of them connected with physical love and reproduction.   « Less

This fine marble relief fragment was most probably taken from the corner of a monumental lion-hunt sarcophagus. It is finely carved in high relief in the manner of a young  More »

This fine marble relief fragment was most probably taken from the corner of a monumental lion-hunt sarcophagus. It is finely carved in high relief in the manner of a young hunter who wears a chlamys fastened around his right shoulder with his head carved almost in the round and turned sharply to his right just enough to make out his long sideburns. His face is composed of large eyes with recessed crescent pupils and incised irises while his hair is swept up and back from his forehead in long wavy locks.His vigorous and youthful body is certainly an achievement within itself, as is the Chalmys, which is draped so languorously across his shoulder. But the aesthetic perfection of his body and the juxtaposition of his sharp muscles against the rich and supple folds of the cloth does not grab us with nearly as much force as his visage. His forehead is short and wide and his hairline unusually arched. The sweep of his long hair with its stray sideburns makes him appear dashing and slightly wild and sets him apart from the neatly arranged curls of most Hellenic sculptures. But the riot of hair cannot for an instant detract from the utter regality and nobility of his face. His vaulted cheekbones accentuate the hollow of his wide inquisitive yearning eyes. His nose artfully planes out from his brow making its straight and bold lines prominent. His lips especially fascinate us with their fullness, their sensuality, the way they curve atop his round mouth and play into the sharp cuve of his boyish chin.His face, despite being in every way an exception to the canon of Hellenistic art provides us with a sense of comfort and undeniable familiarity. This is perhaps because the boy we are seeing, in all likelihood, was destined to become one of the most famous young men in the history of the world. We see in this boy’s dashing features a young Alexander the Great. The chin has not yet filled out into the masculinity of his older age, and his face is a bit thinner in youth, but the regal structure of the countenance, the full and unusual femininity of the lips, and most of all his eyes lead us to conclude this young hunter is, in fact the original master of the world. Looking into his eyes, we see the yearning, the intelligence, and the confident ambition of the conqueror. But rather than seeing a being that has attained his immortality, we see in this face the tension, the thirst, the passion, of one who knows that his immortality lies right around the corner. For those of us who harbor Alexandrian aspirations it is an emotional experience to see our own yen reflected in this piece. What is rendered eternal in this sculpture, with as much grace and skill as ever any masterpiece throughout history has managed, is the potential contained within those who shall someday hold the world in their hands. From a block of marble, the hands and mind of an artist managed to divine the future of this young hunter, and with it, the future of the world. To posses this piece is to bottle the expression that would spread Greece to every corner of the world, and ensure the progress of modern thought, as we know it. - (DC.7400)   « Less

Origin: Mediterranean Circa: 300 BC to 100 BC Dimensions: 7.25" (18.4cm) high x 8" (20.3cm) wide Collection: Classical Style: Hellenistic Medium: Bronze

Origin: Mediterranean Circa: 300 BC to 100 BC Dimensions: 7.25" (18.4cm) high x 8" (20.3cm) wide Collection: Classical Style: Hellenistic Medium: Bronze   « Less

The Apollo Belvedere is the popular name for the Pythian Apollo, a classical masterwork originally sculpted in bronze by the Greek sculptor Leochares in the 4th century BC.  More »

The Apollo Belvedere is the popular name for the Pythian Apollo, a classical masterwork originally sculpted in bronze by the Greek sculptor Leochares in the 4th century BC. The piece was greatly admired in the classical world, and was copied at least once by Roman sculptors in the early days of the Roman Empire. However, the piece was then lost following the sacking of Rome, and was not recovered until the 15th century when the marble copy currently in the Vatican was recovered near Rome. The theme is simple. The sculpture depicts the youthful Apollo, who has been called upon to slay the dread sea-monster Python (from which the name of the modern snake is derived). Having just released the arrow from his bow, he stands in heroic pose with his arrow hand by his side, his weight slightly on the right foot, his eyes focused upon his distant quarry, his hair (banded with a strophium) blowing in the breeze and his chlamys (toga) flapping languidly around his muscular frame. Since the rediscovery of the piece, it has become known as perhaps the ultimate classical Greek sculpture, embodying all the heroic values of the divine and the physical perfection of the human. However, there are few copies of the sculpture that predate the Italian Renaissance, which is why the current piece is of some significance. The casting is of good quality, with only minor flaws, and includes an integral base. The patina – which has been partly restored – adds to the gravitas of the sculpture. The date of the figure makes it a very early representation of a work which later fuelled the European Renaissance, making this an attractive, desirable and important masterwork of Roman art. - (AM.0127)   « Less

origin: Central Europe Circa: 300 BC to 100 BC ddmensions: 10" (25.4cm) high x 18" (45.7cm) wide Collection: Classical Style: Hellenistic Medium: Marble Condition: Extra Fine

origin: Central Europe Circa: 300 BC to 100 BC ddmensions: 10" (25.4cm) high x 18" (45.7cm) wide Collection: Classical Style: Hellenistic Medium: Marble Condition: Extra Fine   « Less