Phoenix Ancient Art S.A.

Despite the wear of the surface and the broken nose, this head is striking for its monumentality, not diminished at all by its miniature size, and for its detailed, remarkably accurate carving of the marble, which almost recalls the art of cut gems.

The base of the neck was carved so that the head would top a statuette or a small size bust, to which it would be attached by a tenon, inserted into the circular hole visible under the neck. This opening extends vertically to the top of the skull, where a disc in relief, covering the hair, shows that the man once wore the modius (kalathos), a high cylindrical hat.

This male figure is characterized by his abundant hair and thick beard, which frame his face and continue over his neck. At the front of the head, the sculptor deeply carved five locks that fall on the forehead, long vertical grooves that delineate the cheeks, and the moustache and the beard that form a compact, curly mass. The face, with its severe, distant expression, is that of an adult in the prime of life, with well structured features: the eyebrows are in relief, the eyes are globular (the iris and pupil are lightly engraved), and the cheekbones are prominent and fi nely modeled. The back of the head, while being perfectly fi nished, bears only long vertical locks, wavy and of little depth.

This figure should certainly be identified with the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis, whose cult was introduced by Ptolemy I Soter (late 4th century) in order to establish a patron god for the city of Alexandria; this deity also brought together the Greeks, newly arrived from Egypt, and the natives. Serapis is a mix of the characters of Egyptian gods (Osiris and Apis) with different figures of the Greek pantheon (Zeus, Hades, Asklepios), which gave him the ability to please many and to be widely worshiped: he was a god of fertility and abundance, closely linked to the Chthonic sphere, who also healed the disabled and pronounced oracles. From an iconographic point of view, his appearance owes much to the Greek god Hades: abundantly coiffed and bearded, he sits on a throne, or stands upright, and wears a chiton and a himation; his most usual attribute is the cylindrical headgear, a symbol of agrarian fertility, sometimes coupled with the cornucopia that the god holds in his left hand.

Serapis enjoyed great popularity during the Hellenistic period; his large temple was located in Alexandria, and he had another famous temple in Memphis. His cult was very successful in the ancient world and spread throughout the Mediterranean basin.

HORNBOSTEL W., Sarapis. Studien zur Ueberlieferungsgeschichte, den Erscheinungsformen und Wandlungen der Gestalt eines Gottes, Leiden, 1973.

Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), vol. VII, Zurich, 1994, s.v. Sarapis, pp. 666-692.

VERMEULE C.C., Greek and Roman Sculpture in America, Malibu, 1981, p. 217, n. 182.