Frieze Masters 2026

Roman figure of a tyche, c.1st century AD

Marble

Height: 36cm

11523

£ 65,000

Roman figure of a tyche, c.1st century AD

The young woman is seated on a softly modelled outcrop of stone, her right knee crossed over her left, one elbow is bent and resting on her thigh with the forearm reaching vertically, her weight supported on her left arm which leans back to rest on the surface of the rock. She wears a chiton beneath the heavily draped himation that surrounds her whole body, enveloping her curves which have been skillfully rendered by the sculptor. A fragment, with the arms and head missing.

Tyche was the personification of a city, and was venerated as the protectress of that city.

Provenance

Lawrence Tisch (1923–2003), New York, USA; acquired 1950s or earlier
Karsten Schubert (1961–2019), London, UK; acquired 1987

Richard Salmon, London, UK; acquired 1993

Literature

Compare Brunilde Sismondo Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture I: The Styles of ca.331-200 B.C. (Bristol, 1990), pl.116a-b.
Also see an example in the Szépmüvészéti Múzeum, Budapest, Hungary, Inv.no. 4742, Arachne ID: 1063455