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Lot 109 - Auction 43

Trapezophoros with sphinxEnd of 1st century BC
Price realized:
7.500,00 GBP
Bids:
45

Bids

Lot status:
Auction closed

Description



Trapezophoros with sphinx
End of 1st century BC
height cm 41,5 (16’’); length cm 37 (15’’)
Part of large tabletop supports, probably stood in the atrium of a wealthy family’s house. Both sides are finely carved with acanthus scrolls and floral sprays; on the edge, the bust of a sphinx leaps out with wide and curvy wings, below them an elongated leaf follows the curve of the body.
The intricate vegetal designs and the wings treatments are typical of the early Augustan age, as attested on the Ara Pacis relief panels. The sphinx is one of main emblem during the Imperial Age and was introduced in to Roman iconography by the same emperor Augustus, as attested in "De vita Caesarum" of Suetonius:
“On letters of recommendation, documents, an personal letters he at first used a sphinx as his seal design, later a portrait of Alexander the Great, and finally his own portrait cut by the hand of Dioscurides; the last of these continued to be used by succeeding emperors”.

PROVENANCE
European old private collection.
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