A ROMAN WHITE MARBLE FRAGMENT DEPICTING THE MYTH OF SELENE AND ENDYMION, CIRCA 180-220 AD
A ROMAN WHITE MARBLE FRAGMENT DEPICTING THE MYTH OF SELENE AND ENDYMION, CIRCA 180-220 AD
Magnificently carved, depicting the goddess of the Moon with youthful facial features and delicately rendered hair, surmounted by a crescent set above her forehead. Her right hand is gracefully raised beside her head, grasping a billowing mantle, which is further held aloft by three winged cupids, exquisitely rendered in openwork.
Provenance: Bruno Cooper Works of Art, Norwich, United Kingdom, 2003. Collection of Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above. A copy of the signed invoice from Bruno Cooper, dated 11 February 2003, addressed to Paolo Bertuzzi, confirming the attribution and dating above, and stating a purchase price for the present lot of GBP 21,000 or approx. EUR 46,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot. Morley 'Bruno' Cooper (d. 2012) Morley (Bruno) Cooper arrived in England from the USA in 1958 on a scholarship to Cambridge. After a successful academic career mostly at the University of East Anglia, he transformed what had been an absorbing hobby, dabbling in antiques, into a full career. Trading in the Suffolk town of Long Melford, he quickly established a reputation for the fine European furniture he stocked. Always restless, he eventually became bored the furniture market; he closed the shop, and, from then on, exhibited exclusively at international antique fairs where his reputation spread wider. His stock was characterized by his personal eclecticism; like a cabinet of curiosities. Towards the end of his life, his interests had focused increasingly on to Asia and Indian sculpture in particular. Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother's business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than sixty years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.
Condition: Good condition with expected wear, traces of weathering and erosion, obvious losses, the section incorporating the head of Selene visibly repaired, old fills, and scattered minor chips. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into fine hairline cracks.
Weight: 12.3 kg
Dimensions: Length 45.8 cm
The gradual shift in Roman funerary practice from cremation to inhumation, which took place from the late first century AD and particularly during the second century, created a growing demand for elaborately carved stone sarcophagi, which became important vehicles for funerary display and commemoration among wealthy patrons, often decorated with mythological, pastoral, or heroic imagery.
The myth of Selene and Endymion became particularly well suited to this new funerary context. Selene, the goddess and personification of the Moon, commonly identified by the lunar crescent above her forehead, as in the present example, fell in love with the beautiful youth Endymion, who was granted eternal sleep, preserving his youth and beauty unchanged. On Roman sarcophagi, this perpetual slumber provided a powerful metaphor for death as a peaceful and timeless rest, while the repeated nocturnal visits of Selene to Endymion evoked the endurance of love beyond death.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related Roman marble fragment of a sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion, dated to the late 2nd-early 3rd century AD, 56.6 cm long, in the San Antonio Museum of Art, object number 86.134.189. Compare a closely related Roman marble fragment of a sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion, dated c. 210 AD, 165.4 cm long, in the Getty Museum, object number 76.AA.8.a, and illustrated in Guntram Koch and Karol Wright, Roman Funerary Sculpture. Catalogue of the Collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988, p. 32-35, no. 12. Compare a closely related Roman marble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion, dated to the early 3rd century AD, 72.4 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 47.100.4a, b, and illustrated in Anna Marguerite McCann, Roman Sarcophagi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978, p. 39, no. 4.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie's London, 6 October 2011, lot 134
Price: GBP 20,000 or approx. EUR 36,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Roman marble sarcophagus fragment, circa 3rd-4th century AD
Expert remark: Compare the related modeling, manner of carving in openwork, and stone. Note the slightly later dating and similar size (38 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Bonhams London, 5 October 2011, lot 285
Price: GBP 39,650 or approx. EUR 71,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Roman marble sarcophagus relief fragment, Antonine Period, circa AD 161-192
Expert remark: Compare the related modeling, manner of carving in openwork, and stone. Note the similar size (43 cm).
A ROMAN WHITE MARBLE FRAGMENT DEPICTING THE MYTH OF SELENE AND ENDYMION, CIRCA 180-220 AD
Magnificently carved, depicting the goddess of the Moon with youthful facial features and delicately rendered hair, surmounted by a crescent set above her forehead. Her right hand is gracefully raised beside her head, grasping a billowing mantle, which is further held aloft by three winged cupids, exquisitely rendered in openwork.
Provenance: Bruno Cooper Works of Art, Norwich, United Kingdom, 2003. Collection of Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above. A copy of the signed invoice from Bruno Cooper, dated 11 February 2003, addressed to Paolo Bertuzzi, confirming the attribution and dating above, and stating a purchase price for the present lot of GBP 21,000 or approx. EUR 46,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot. Morley 'Bruno' Cooper (d. 2012) Morley (Bruno) Cooper arrived in England from the USA in 1958 on a scholarship to Cambridge. After a successful academic career mostly at the University of East Anglia, he transformed what had been an absorbing hobby, dabbling in antiques, into a full career. Trading in the Suffolk town of Long Melford, he quickly established a reputation for the fine European furniture he stocked. Always restless, he eventually became bored the furniture market; he closed the shop, and, from then on, exhibited exclusively at international antique fairs where his reputation spread wider. His stock was characterized by his personal eclecticism; like a cabinet of curiosities. Towards the end of his life, his interests had focused increasingly on to Asia and Indian sculpture in particular. Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother's business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than sixty years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom.
Condition: Good condition with expected wear, traces of weathering and erosion, obvious losses, the section incorporating the head of Selene visibly repaired, old fills, and scattered minor chips. The stone with natural fissures, some of which may have developed into fine hairline cracks.
Weight: 12.3 kg
Dimensions: Length 45.8 cm
The gradual shift in Roman funerary practice from cremation to inhumation, which took place from the late first century AD and particularly during the second century, created a growing demand for elaborately carved stone sarcophagi, which became important vehicles for funerary display and commemoration among wealthy patrons, often decorated with mythological, pastoral, or heroic imagery.
The myth of Selene and Endymion became particularly well suited to this new funerary context. Selene, the goddess and personification of the Moon, commonly identified by the lunar crescent above her forehead, as in the present example, fell in love with the beautiful youth Endymion, who was granted eternal sleep, preserving his youth and beauty unchanged. On Roman sarcophagi, this perpetual slumber provided a powerful metaphor for death as a peaceful and timeless rest, while the repeated nocturnal visits of Selene to Endymion evoked the endurance of love beyond death.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related Roman marble fragment of a sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion, dated to the late 2nd-early 3rd century AD, 56.6 cm long, in the San Antonio Museum of Art, object number 86.134.189. Compare a closely related Roman marble fragment of a sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion, dated c. 210 AD, 165.4 cm long, in the Getty Museum, object number 76.AA.8.a, and illustrated in Guntram Koch and Karol Wright, Roman Funerary Sculpture. Catalogue of the Collections, The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1988, p. 32-35, no. 12. Compare a closely related Roman marble sarcophagus with the myth of Selene and Endymion, dated to the early 3rd century AD, 72.4 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 47.100.4a, b, and illustrated in Anna Marguerite McCann, Roman Sarcophagi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1978, p. 39, no. 4.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Christie's London, 6 October 2011, lot 134
Price: GBP 20,000 or approx. EUR 36,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Roman marble sarcophagus fragment, circa 3rd-4th century AD
Expert remark: Compare the related modeling, manner of carving in openwork, and stone. Note the slightly later dating and similar size (38 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Bonhams London, 5 October 2011, lot 285
Price: GBP 39,650 or approx. EUR 71,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: A Roman marble sarcophagus relief fragment, Antonine Period, circa AD 161-192
Expert remark: Compare the related modeling, manner of carving in openwork, and stone. Note the similar size (43 cm).
