bust
- Museum number
- 1805,0703.66
- Description
-
Terminal bust of rosso antico marble, probably Dionysos. The eyes were inlaid with glass.
- Production date
- 2ndC (probably)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 24.13 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Made in the style of the early 5thC BC.
-
Cook 2011, nr. 252:
‘A head of Apollo less than life. it is in red Egyptian marble; the sockets of ye eyes, now empty, had been filled with precious stones or metal the represent the eye’ (TY 12/3, library 7). In the Towneley Hall copy, the identification is changed from Apollo to ‘Osiris or Bacchus Diphues’. The material is better known as rosso antico, which was mined on Cape Tenairon, the most southerly point of the Peloponnese, and was used for sculpture from the Hadrianic period (Marchei).
Bought from Byres in 1784 for 20 Scudi (TY 7/693, there described as ‘Head of Apollo, Egyptian red’), rendered by Townley as £4.10s. (TY 10/16).
In 1784 Townley compiled a list of ‘Articles to be sent from Mr Byres’ (TY 10/15), and on 18 August, Byres wrote from Rome enclosing a Bill of Lading. His letter (TY 7/693) included a list of the contents of the case, which was more extensive than Townley’s list. In addition to vases, terracottas, intaglios, and items in ivory and glass, there were nine items in marble or other stone, eight of which can be identified in the collection (among which 1805,0703.137; 1805,0703.113; 1805,0703.214; 1805,0703.66; 1805,0703.444). The ninth, ‘a large marble scarabeo about three inches diameter characters at the bottom’ (TY 10/15), described by Byres as ‘a Bagarozzi’, remains unidentified. It was charged by Byres at 4 Scudi (TY 7/693), rendered by Townley as 19s. (TY 10/16). Townley recorded the date of the transaction incorrectly as 1778 (TY 12/2), 1786 (TY 10/16), and other years as noted in the individual entries. The erroneous date of 1785 may be derived from Townley’s payment of the transport costs in April of that year (‘Union Catalogue’, fo. 75r).
Date:
II AD (SECW and museum label).
Drawings:
*Townley drawing 2010,5006.210.
Bibliography:
- Synopsis of the Contents of the British Museum (1808), X.19;
- A. H. Smith, A Catalogue of Sculpture in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, Vol. III (London 1904), 49, no. 1631;
- on rosso antico, see M.C.Marchei in G. Borghini (eds.), Marmi antichi (Rome, 1989), 288, no. 126.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1805
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1805,0703.66
