Roman Pavonazzetto Marble Dacian Captive, ex Christie's

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Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art

By Artemis Gallery

Sep 26, 2019

Set Reminder 2019-09-26 10:00:00 2019-09-26 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Exceptional Day 1: Antiquities & Asian Art https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/exceptional-day-1-antiquities-asian-art-4437
Day 1 of an important 2-day auction featuring exceptional, museum-worthy examples of Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Viking, Russian, Near Eastern, as well as Asian Art from China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and India. Artemis Gallery info@artemisgallery.com

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• Lot Description
  Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 2nd century CE. An expertly carved statue of a bound prisoner, dressed in a long tunic-like garment and trousers, with arms behind the back where they meet a pillar. The figure appears to be standing in contrapposto as the left knee is bent to indicate a weight shift. Despite the fact that the head and lower legs are missing, this pose with arms behind the back suggests that the figure represents a prisoner, perhaps one of the Dacians captured by Trajan's army in what we refer to today as the Carpathian mountains. A spectacular statue of a captive barbarian, and the Pavonazzetto marble (a stunning variety of Carrara marble) is inherently beautiful presenting purple and plum red veining throughout. See more about the historical context of this piece as well as the rarity of Pavonazzetto marble below. Size: 8.5" L x 9" W x 20" H (21.6 cm x 22.9 cm x 50.8 cm); 24.25" H (61.6 cm) on included custom stand.
  
  According to Andrew Curry who wrote a National Geographic article that analyzed the destruction delineated on the Trajan Column wrote, "Near the top of the column is a glimpse of the denouement: a village put to the torch, Dacians fleeing, a province empty of all but cows and goats. . . The two wars must have killed tens of thousands. A contemporary claimed that Trajan took 500,000 prisoners, bringing some 10,000 to Rome to fight in the gladiatorial games that were staged for 123 days in celebration." Curry interviewed archaeologist Gelu Florea who has excavated the site of the Dacian's defeat. Florea stated, "Everything was dismantled by the Romans. There wasn't a building remaining in the entire fortress. It was a show of power—we have the means, we have the power, we are the bosses." (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/article.html)
  
  This is an ex-Christie's piece (ex-Christie's, New York "Antiquities" auction - sale 14356, October 25, 2017, lot 51 - listed with estimate of $60,000 to $90,000). According to Christie's description, "Pavonazzetto (Marmo Phrygium in Latin) is a fine-grained marble with purplish veins and inclusions, which historically was imported to Rome from Docimium (located in central Phrygia in Asia Minor). Due to the quarries of this distinctive marble being of considerable distance from navigable waterways, pavonazzetto was extremely expensive in antiquity. Despite this, or perhaps as a result, pavonazzetto was particularly fashionable from the 1st Century A.D. onwards, when it was most commonly employed for the carving of supporting statues representing an Oriental type of figure dressed in foreign costume, as seen in the present example. The extremities were frequently finished in another material, typically white marble, as evinced here by the shoulder cavity which was designed for the insertion of now-missing separately-made head. The present example likely depicts a Dacian captive, and may take its inspiration from colossal statues which decorated Trajan's Forum in Rome (see M. De Nuccio and L. Ungaro, I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale, pp. 333-340, nos. 31-40)."
  
  Provenance: private East Coast, USA collection; ex-Christie's, New York "Antiquities" auction (sale 14356, October 25, 2017, lot 51); ex-private collection, acquired prior to 1995 from Fortuna Fine Arts, New York, New York, USA
  
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  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
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  #149155

  Condition

  A fragment from a larger sculpture - missing head and lower legs - but a strong representation nonetheless. Losses to peripheries and high pointed areas as expected.
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