ROMAN MARBLE RELIEF STELE DEPICTING APOLLO - PUBLISHED
Ca. Early 1st century BC.
A magnificent marble relief stele of pentagon shape, finely carved with the relief of a young Apollo on horseback, holding doubled bitted axe called a Labrys. Apollo is depicting with parted lips, the wavy hair centrally parted, the locks defined by deeply drilled channels. A carved relief stele such as this one was part of a long tradition of marking the graves of elite and even some middle-class Roman citizens. The pentagonal form of the stele is meant to imitate a small temple known as a naiskos. This object was likely to have been a funerary stela of a fallen horseman of which this pays tribute to Apollo, the stele would originally have had an inscription to the owner. This would have been made for someone of high importance or significance in the Roman world. For similar examples of stela see: Sculpture in Stone, The Greek, Roman and Etruscan collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston" by Mary B. Comstock and Cornelius C. Vermeule (Boston, 1976). P. Hermann, Ergebnisse einer Reise in Nordostlydien, in Denkschriften Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Robinson, Edward. 1908. "New Accessions in the Classical Department: I. Marbles." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Size: L: 325 mm / W: 295mm; 10.5kg
Provenance: Property of a London doctor; formerly with Royal Athena Galleries, New York. Acquired from the famous Morkramer collection, 1960s USA. Published in: Art of the Ancient World, Vol. XXV - 2014. Previously listed / sold for 25,000$.
Estimate: GBP 6000 - 12000