Roman vegetal fitment, 1st century BC-1st century AD
Bronze
Height: 43.5cm, width between arms: 27.5cm
11996
£ 28,000
Sizeable bronze fitment in the form of an upward, twisting vegetal stem which bifurcates, each branch turning away in a curve from the other. They terminate in a mirrored pair of supports arranged opposite and parallel to each other, each being pair of double volutes with a central bud rising from a calyx of acanthus leaves with tangs. Tip of one foliate spoke restored.
It is possible that this fitment is a support for a tray-like table held in the clenched hand of a standing bronze youth. Such an arrangement is known from examples from Pompeii, though if so it is unclear how the flat surface would have been fixed to this support. An alternative possibility is that this is a candelabrum, from which lamps might have hung, though still held by a statue of a youth.
It is possible that this fitment is a support for a tray-like table held in the clenched hand of a standing bronze youth. Such an arrangement is known from examples from Pompeii, though if so it is unclear how the flat surface would have been fixed to this support. An alternative possibility is that this is a candelabrum, from which lamps might have hung, though still held by a statue of a youth.
Provenance
'Davidson', London, UK
François Antonovich, France; acquired from the above 1975
Property of François Antonovich; Christie's, London, 5th October 2000R.S.L. collection, London, UK; acquired from the above
Accompanied by letters from the relevant Greek and Italian authorities renouncing any current or future claim over this piece.
Literature
Compare an example published in Ruth Bielfeldt, Art History, Volume 41, Issue 3, Special Issue: The Embodied Object in Classical Antiquity, 'Candelabrus and Trimalchio: Embodied Histories of Roman Lampstands and their Slaves' (online, 2018), p.420-443. In the same essay a standing statue of a youth, ephebe, found at Pompeii, is shown holding similar foliate attachments: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-8365.12382Publications
François Antonovich, Les Metamorphoses divines d'Alexandre (Paris, 1996), pp.223 and 401Christie's, London, Antiquities, 5th October 2000, lot 81
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