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Lot 326A
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19th C. Neapolitan Leaded Brass Silenus - After Pompeii Bronze
19th C. Neapolitan Leaded Brass Silenus - After Pompeii Bronze
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Southern Europe, Italy, Neapolitan, Grand Tour, ca. 1870–1910 CE. A leaded brass figure of the drunken Silenus, the corpulent old companion of Bacchus, caught mid-stagger with arms flung wide. A wreath of grapes and vine leaves crowns his thick curls, and his bearded face tilts in besotted reverie. In one upraised hand he once steadied a ring or circlet; from the other a sinuous serpent rises, its coils echoing the swaying torsion of the body. The musculature is softened to flesh, the paunch and slackened limbs deliberately rendered to convey intoxication. Mounted on an oval verde antico marble socle, the piece exemplifies the archaeological taste that flourished after the great excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum. It reproduces, in a domestic cabinet scale, an antique model recovered for the modern collector's mantel. Size: 3.9" W x 8.3" H (9.9 cm W x 21.1 cm H); on included custom stand: 6.3" W x 9" H x 4.2" D (16.0 cm W x 22.9 cm H x 10.7 cm D).

The model derives from a bronze Silenus unearthed at Pompeii in 1864, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. The ancient original depicted the satyr holding a circle and a serpent and is thought to have served as the support for a basin or fountain, a decorative waterwork in a Roman household. After the Bourbon and later excavations laid bare the buried cities of Campania, Neapolitan foundries produced countless reductions of the museum's celebrated bronzes, sold to Grand Tour travelers as cultivated souvenirs. The present figure belongs to that industry: cast not in true bronze but in a leaded brass alloy, patinated to imitate the dark surface of antiquity, and set upon a marble base in keeping with the period's antiquarian display conventions.

Provenance: private Brooklyn, New York, USA collection

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Item # 190425

  • Condition: Very Good. Figure slightly loose on stand. Patinated. Intact and excellent with good remaining detail.

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by Artemis Fine Arts
June 25, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Artemis Fine Arts

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000