Lot 32
Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 3rd century CE. A fascinating marble sculpture of a neck from a larger, likely male figure due to the prominent musculature. This neck may have been the neck of a god or an emperor. Marble statuary was everywhere in ancient Rome; even after all of the plundering that Rome underwent after the fall of the Roman Empire, we can still see a tremendous amount of marble statuary, including friezes, throughout the city. As a Roman citizen, you would have seen a world decorated with sculpted pieces like this one; they would have been brightly colored, gilded, or given inlays of shell or other stone. The light remains of red and green pigments at the top of this piece may be remnants from when it was once painted. Size: 7.4" W x 5.5" H (18.8 cm x 14 cm); 10.5" H (26.7 cm) on included custom stand.
During the High Classical period (ca. 450 to 400 BCE), Polykleitos developed a canon (kanon) of proportions to create statues that epitomized the ideal human body. He wrote a treatise referred to as the Kanon and envisioned the ideal male nude, also referred to as the Kanon, to exemplify his theories which were grounded in mathematical formulas. He aimed for balance, completeness, and general harmony in his works. Although Polykleitos' original bronze Doryphoros did not survive, through ancient writings we know that his sculpture captured the Greek principles of symmetria (symmetry), isonomia (equilibrium), and rhythmos (rhythm). Polykleitos famously stated, "Perfection comes about little by little through many numbers" (Philo, Mechanicus, quoted in Andrew Stewart, "Polykleitos of Argos," One Hundred Greek Sculptor: Their Careers and Extant Works) - meaning that a statue is comprised of numerous definable parts that relate to one another via a system of mathematical ratios. Sculptors employed Polykleitos' Kanon to achieve such "perfect" statues, and this Kanon was later adhered to the Roman sculptors (such as the artist who created this example) as well as sculptors of the Renaissance and Neo-Classical periods.
Provenance: East Coast collection, New York Gallery, New York City, New York, USA, acquired before 2010
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#174707
- Condition: Fragment of a larger piece. Nicks, chips, and abrasions, as shown. Earthen deposits and encrustations in areas. Very liberal remains of pigment at top.
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