9411. Roman Marble Figure of Sylvanus

Ca. 1st to 2nd Century AD.

The youthful god shown standing with his weight on his left leg, his right relaxed, naked except for an animal skin draped across his slender body and falling behind him, the animal head behind his left shoulder, holding a bunch of grapes in his left hand, a tether around the tree-trunk against his left leg, presumably for an animal, now missing, set on an integral oval base.

Size 29½in (75cm) high.

A quote by Leonard Barkan from, Understanding the Past,

The practice of restoration is so out of fashion nowadays that we are able to dismiss it as a harmful error of the past that has further separated us from the accurate experience of antiquities

(old restorations stripped away) drill hole where a lion cloth once hung (Victorian times); ancient iron and later bronze pin. Areas with losses and visible cracks and repairs, and some surface weathering to ancient patina. What does remain is quite good.

Provenance: Acquired by the present owner in Buenos Aires in the early 1970s.

Sylvanus was originally a Latin god of the woodlands and agricultural fertility. Adopted by the Romans, his cult gained popularity in the 2nd century A.D., with the statue type deriving from other father gods such as Jupiter and Neptune.

Price on Request

All items are Guaranteed Authentic as described

More Images: