Ancient Roman Portrait Bust of Empress Faustina Major from the Second Century AD

A portrait of Roman aristocrat executed in the Veristic style. From the Latin "verus" meaning truth, the practice represented everyday subjects with great realism often including signs of age with exacting detail. Wrinkles, furrowed brows, and moles are presented as signs of wisdom and power and suggest the philosophical and moral character of the sitter. With the ascent of Emperor Augustus, eternal youth again took center stage, and verism fell into disfavor. The style enjoyed a resurgence after Emperor Vespasian came to power in 69 AD, Italy, 1st century BC. Provenance - the collection of Spanish fashion designer Elio Berhanyer...

A magnificent pair of giltwood lions. The two animals call to mind England's Coronation chair, commissioned by King Edward I to contain the Stone of Scon...

A masterful large classical statue in cast bronze of a beautiful young woman in stride wearing a flowing ionic chiton. The exquisite casting of ...

A fine portrait miniature of a man with long tousled hair and blue high-collared frock coat. The image is encased by parcel-gilt and black lacquered glass with a thick giltwood shado...

An attractive pair of colonial American mid-18th century oil on canvas portraits. The detail and rendering of the paintings is of extremely fine quality. Highly contrasted figures against the dark backgrounds references the earlier work of Caravaggio and Rembrandt. One such American artist who particularly employed this technique in the late 1760s and early 1770s was John Singleton Copley...

Part of the masterwork of Dutch theologian, explorer, and missionary Arnoldus Mantanus De Nieuwe en Onbekende Weereld from 1671, this theatrical scene of the Port of Lima displays a bustling Harbour full of masted ships. One of the richest cities of the New World, Lima became the capital of the largest colonial viceroyalty of the Spanish crown...

An ancient Roman marble bust of a male, dating to the 1st-2nd century AD. Larger than life-size and depicting a male wearing a laurel wreath and milit...

A fine statuary marble bust of Faustina the younger, Rome, second half of the 18th century. Measures: 24in. (61cm) high; 15in. (38cm) wide; 10.5in. (27cm) deep.

This fine ancient bronze statue of Isis/Aphrodite, a syncretistic goddess of Hellenistic origin combines, the Egyptian goddess Isis with the Gree...

Roman miniature bust of a noble woman, carved marble, Severan Dynasty, c. 225 A.D. Rare and particularly elegant ‘wig portrait’ of a noble woman, belonging to the early 3rd Century - a style distinctive of Severan Dynasty female portrait busts, in which part of the head has been chiselled away to allow for the addition of a separate hairpiece, in many cases from a darker material, in order to create an almost painterly effect, in the interplay of different coloured stones. The degree of naturalism and emotional depth achieved in a piece of such a small scale implies a sculptor of great talent. The subtle parting of the lips, in combination with her upturned, vacant gaze and tired eyes, conveys a pensive mood, and even a quiet melancholy. A woman strolls the town in thick wigs bought with gold, Then buys new hair to complement the old. And having bought, she doesn’t blush! Right there she buys, Before Alcides’ and the Muses’ eyes. (Ovid, Ars Amatoria, III, 161-168) The fashion of wig-wearing in this period, as well as its emulation in the wig portrait bust, is widely attributed to Julia Domna...

17th century, Italian ancient carved stone bust of Roman Emperor Measures: H 33 (with base) H 28.5 (sculpture only) x 25 x 7 cm. The ancient bust, in ...

A detailed and beautifully carved marble bust of the Roman God Janus. The God of beginnings, endings, time, duality and boundaries, the openings of doorways, gates and passages. The two faces portray this duality. They are both expressively carved with different detail to the curled horns. The features are clearly carved in a expression of contemplation framed...