Roman Statuette of Neptune/Poseidon. Circa 1st-4th century AD. Copper-alloy, 147.7 grams. 108.5 mm. A very rare and important Roman bronze statuette depicting Neptune. One off the finest of the very few remaining examples, found in Gloucestershire UK, 2015. Recorded on the PAS database as: OXON-C146AD. The statue depicts Neptune in motion, with the right leg in front of the left, torso slightly twisted, left arm forward and bent at the elbow, and the right arm slightly behind the body bent slightly at the elbow. The head is facing forward and is slightly raised, a long, flowing forked beard coming to rest on the chest. The cury hair is raised above the scalp, and two pony tails extend from the back of the head coming to rest behind the right shoulder. Neptune is mostly naked, with a sash draped over the left hip and the groin and extending between the buttocks down to the base. A separate fragment of the statue consists of the right hand, which grips the neck of an open mouthed dolphin. The left hand is missing from an old break. Towards the base, attached to the sash near the left ankle is a cylindrical element, possibly a section of the dolphin's body. The statue does not stand of its own accord; presumably the missing arm elements would have counter-balanced the statue. Martin Henig (University of Oxford) has examined the figure and comments that the object appears to be a heavily leaded bronze depicting Neptune/Poseidon. The god stands holding a dolphin with a crest and possibly holding a trident in the other hand. The figure with its wind or wave swept beard is unusual for Neptune; the expressive face and livelier swing of the body is far superior to other examples. Henig mentions the head of Neptune in stone from Cirencester, the Bodiccan tombstone depicting the head of Oceanus, and a Neptune with mask conflated with a Medusa from Bath (details from Martin Henig pers. comm. in litt.). References: Erika Simon and Gerhard Bauchhenss 1994 Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae VII (Zurich and Munich 1994) pp.483-500.
Realised Price: £
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