A ROMAN PORPHYRY TYCHE - CIRCA 2ND CENTURY A.D.

The goddess depicted seated on rocks with her right leg crossing over her left, leaning forward with her right elbow resting on her thigh, her left arm lowered with her hand originally positioned on the rocks, wearing a voluminous himation pulled tight around her body, revealing its form beneath, with deep folds across her body and cascading folds flowing over the rocks on either side of her legs, her separately-made and now-missing head, hands and right foot likely originally sculpted from white marble and inserted into the mortises, the right foot perhaps once resting on a separately-made figure, likely a personification of a river. 31½ in. (80 cm.) high. Estimate on request

THE PROPERTY OF A COLLECTOR

Provenance: Dr. Elie Borowski, acquired in 1967.

Literature: E. Bartman, Ancient Sculptural Copies in Miniature, 1992, p. 29 and note 69.

Exhibited: Frankfurt, Liebieghaus, 1980-1986.
Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, 1986-1991.

Lot Notes: In antiquity, porphyry was highly regarded for its color, since purple was symbolic of high rank and authority. The stone was quarried at only one location in Egypt's eastern desert near Mons Porphyrites, known today as Gebel Kokham, beginning in the early 1st century A.D. It was transported overland to Kainopolis on the Nile, modern Qena, and then by boat north to Alexandria and from there on to Rome and elsewhere in the Empire. During the Roman Period, the quarries were under the direct control of the emperor. An insatiable taste in Rome for luxurious colored stones began during the Republic when Rome conquered the Hellenistic kingdoms in the East. Porphyry was only sporadically used during the 1st century A.D, reaching its first peak of use during the reigns of the emperors Trajan (98-117 A.D.) and Hadrian (117-138 A.D.), and again in the late 3rd and 4th centuries during the Tetrarchy and following. It was used for architectural elements including columns and floor paving, for decorative urns and basins, for Imperial sarcophagi and statuary.

For the most recent discussions on porphyry, see Anderson and Nista, Radiance in Stone, Sculptures in Colored Marble from the Museo Nazionale Romano; De Nuccio and Ungaro, I marmi colorati della Roma imperiale; and Malgouyres, Porphyre, La Pierre pourpre des Ptolémées à Bonaparte. Most porphyry statuary, as with the present example, was finished as a composite work of art, with the head, hands and feet made from a contrasting material, usually white marble. For other porphyry composite statuary from the 2nd century A.D. see the pair of Dacian prisoners, nos. 5 and 6, a figure of an empress, no. 10, and a figure of Minerva with 18th century restorations in bronze, no. 32, in Malgouyres, op. cit., all now in Paris. For a seated figure of Apollo, now in Naples, and for a fragmentary torso of a togate emperor, now in Florence, see nos. 1 and 29 in De Nuccio and Ungaro, op. cit. For a standing togate figure see p. 40 in Anderson and Nista, op. cit. For a seated figure of an emperor, perhaps Hadrian, re-used in the Byzantine esplanade at Caesarea, see fig. 136 in Holum, et al., King Herod's Dream, Caesarea on the Sea.

The goddess Tyche presided over the prosperity of the city, bringing its citizens, with hope, good fortune. The most renowned sculpture of Tyche from the ancient world was a colossal bronze statue by the Greek artist Eutychides, a pupil of Lysippos, created for the city of Antioch in the early 3rd century B.C. The Tyche of Antioch was a personification of the city. Although the original does not survive, its existence is known from ancient literary sources and its appearance is recognized in various media, including small bronzes, reliefs, coins and gems, and, most famously, a marble now in the Vatican Museums (see no. 117 in Havelock, Hellenistic Art). All show the goddess seated on a rock, symbolic of Mount Silpius, with her feet resting on the river Orontes, personified as a swimming youth. On her head she wore a mural crown, representing the crenellated walls of the city. As most cities had their own Tyche, the topographical details of Eutychides' original could be appropriated to suit any location. On account of the material from which it is sculpted, this porphyry Tyche must have been an Imperial commission, inspired by the work of Eutychides, and was perhaps a benevolent gift to one of the great cities of the Empire or an important local potentate. For Tyche see Matheson, An Obsession with Fortune, Tyche in Greek and Roman Art.

The posture of Eutychides' Tyche, specifically the crossed legs and the right elbow resting on the knee, is unusual in Greek art for women (see Ridgway, Hellenistic Sculpture I, The Styles of ca. 331-200 B.C., pp. 233-239). According to Ridgway, p. 235, op. cit., the pose "can be described as both pyramidal and triangular, open and closed, centrifugal and centripetal." The pose is first attested on a figure of Penelope on an Attic red-figured skyphos from the 5th century B.C. (see pl. 118 in Ridgway, op. cit.), and was also used for depictions of the Muse Ourania, the earliest known example of which in stone is on the Mantineia base, dated to the third quarter of the 4th century B.C. (pl. 132, Ridgway, op. cit.). For two seated figures of Ourania, both Roman and thought to be based on an earlier Greek original, see the examples in Liebieghaus, Frankfurt and the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, pls. 130-131 in Ridgway, op. cit. That Tyche was the intended subject of the Borowski sculpture is confirmed by the cut-away below the feet for insertion of a river personification.

Christie's. ANTIQUITIES.  4 June 2008