Artworks

Very large head of a bearded male, of a style that either represents a king or a god. His hair is dressed in a fringe of tight locks beneath a laurel wreath, a long moustache falls over his beard of stylised hooked curls. Nose and lower part of beard restored.

A very imposing piece. It has been suggested that these large-scale heads might represent the Achaemenid rulers of Cyprus; in any event the treatment of the hair is very reminiscent of Persian work of the period.

Provenance

Private collection (M.M.) UK
Private collection, London, UK
Private collection, USA; acquired at Sotheby's in 1985
Private collection, New York, USA
Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, Switzerland; acquired November 2011 from Charles Ede

Literature

Compare T. Spiteris, The Art of Cyprus (London, 1970), p.181 (for the features) and for the beard see A. M. Nielsen, Corpus of Cypriote Antiquities Vol.8 Cypriote Antiquities in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen (Gothenburg, 1983), no.43

Publications

Christie's, London, UK, Fine Antiquities, 28th November 1979, lot 83
Sotheby's, New York, USA, Antiquities and Islamic Art, 8th-9th February 1985, lot 73