JUPITER ENTHRONED Roman, probably Asia Minor, 2nd century AD.

White marble. Jupiter as the father of all gods, seated on a throne and holding a thunderbolt in his right hand.
23 × 31.5 × 34 cm.

In a fragmentary condition.

Provenance:
- Private collection of an Italian aristocrat in Geneva, acquired ca. 1940/50.
- Private collection, Geneva, acquired from the above ca. 1970.
- By inheritance in a private collection, Geneva.
- Auction Genève Enchères, 10 December 2015, Lot No. 752.
- Private collection, Paris, acquired at the above auction.
- Auction Sotheby's, The Beauty Within: The Chenel Collection, London, 17 December 2020, Lot No. 65.
- Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above auction.

Jupiter, King of the Gods, is depicted majestically seated on a throne. In his right hand, he holds his typical attribute, bolts of lightning, which rests on his right leg. The loosely draped robe with slightly diagonally arranged folds gently hugs his legs and falls over his left shoulder. The left arm is fragmentary, but based on the many known variations of this iconography, it is likely that he was clutching his scepter. The present type of representation is widely known in Greco-Roman Antiquity. The model is based on a colossal gold and ivory statue of Zeus carved by Phidias in the second half of the 5th century BC for the Temple of Zeus at Olympia, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. According to descriptions from Antiquity, however, the Zeus of Olympia is likely to have held a winged Victory in his right hand, and not bolts of lightning (Pausanias, Description of Greece, V, 11, 1-9). The model with the variant of the flashes of lighting is common in the Roman world, as is shown by a large Roman statue of Jupiter from the 1st century AD in the Getty Museum (Inv. No. 73.AA.32). Another comparable Jupiter sculpture of the same type from the 1st/2nd century AD is in the Louvre (Inv. No. 4437).
Although the sculpture on offer is small in scale, it nevertheless exudes a certain monumentality. The details, such as the drapery, the bolts of lightning, and the anatomical dimensions, are very precisely worked out. Curiously, the sculptor omitted the sandal on the right foot.