A Gold Head of a Satyr, Magna Graecia, 4th/3rd century B.C.
Estimate
40,000 - 60,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
A Gold Head of a Satyr, Magna Graecia, 4th/3rd century B.C.
his lively face lifted ecstatically, with dimpled chin and cheeks, thick finely-engraved eyebrows, and long wavy hair swept up and surmounted by a filigree diadem of vine and granulated grapes, two ribbed loops with fragmentary attachment wire behind.
gold
height 1½ in.
3.9 cm
Mathias Komor (1909-1984), New York;
Sotheby's, New York, February 8th-9th, 1985, lot 147, illus.;
American private collection, acquired at the above sale (Sotheby’s, New York, November 21st-22nd, 1985, lot 102, illus.);
Private Collection, South Florida, acquired at the above sale (Christie’s, New York, December 5th, 2012, lot 381, illus.);
Where acquired by the present collector.
Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, July 2016 to August 2026
Kenneth Lapatin, Luxus - The Sumptuous Arts of Greece and Rome, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2015, p. 77, pl. 42
The perforated flange beneath the neck of this lively Satyr head suggests that the piece may originally have functioned as the lid of a small vessel before being adapted for suspension. Kenneth Lapatin notes that the goldsmith masterfully captured a “powerful vivacity” in the miniature, noting particularly the dramatic treatment of locks seen in the “Dying Gaul” and other Pergamene sculpture of the 2nd century B.C. (op. cit. p. 233).
