Roman Bronze Sphinx Applique

$372.79

A finely modelled Ancient Roman fragmentary cast bronze applique in the shape of a sphinx, portrayed frontally, facing forward. The mythological monster is rendered in an extremely naturalistic manner, with finely incised details such as facial features, hair and paw. A beautiful brown patination covers the majority of the surface. Although the piece displays fragmentary condition, the skills of Roman craftsmen in working bronze are undeniable.

Date: Circa 1st-3rd century AD
Condition: Fragmentary, right leg missing. Brown patina to the surface.

SOLD

Such an applique might have been part of a larger composition or mounted on a piece of furniture, jewellery box or as a part of a candelabrum. It was the custom for the Ancient Romans, especially the wealthy, to have highly decorated everyday life objects, such as jewellery boxes or toiletry tables. Interestingly, motives driven from Egyptian decorative arts, such as sphinxes, hieroglyphs and scarabs, were especially popular in Rome in the years after the defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BC.

According to the mythological tradition of ancient Greece and Rome, the winged sphinx was a hybrid creature, featuring the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird. The creature appears in a variety of myths and stories – perhaps most famously as part of the Oedipus myth, in which the protagonist correctly answered the Sphinx’s riddle and thus became king of Thebes.

Weight 18.6 g
Dimensions W 2.5 x H 7 cm
Culture

Egyptian Mythology

Metal

Region

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