By Carter B. Horsley

Although this auction of Antiquities at Sotheby's has only 111 lots, less than a third of the number offered this season at Christie's, it is highlighted by several fine Roman and Greek works.

One of the smallest, but loveliest is Lot 106, a 2 3/8-inch-high plasma figure of a deity that is dated Roman Imperial, circa 1st Century A.D. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $48,000 including the buyer's premium as do all results mentioned in this article. The catalogue entry for the lot notes that the gold head is "probably a later addition," adding that the deity holds "an unidentified object in the right hand and a fragmentary attribute in the left hand."

Lot 51 is an impressive marble statue of Pan with a Nymph that is dated Roman Imperial, circa 2nd Century A.D. It is 51 inches high and the catalogue notes that it is "inspired by Hellenistic prototypes, with 18th and 19th Century European restorations. "For the only other known replica of this type," the catalogue entry continued, "see the group in the Vatican Museums, which was acquired by Pope Clement XIV from Thomas Jenkins," adding that Both the present and the Vatican statues combine elements from two Hellenistic compositions often copied in Roman times: the nymph comes from the “Invitation to the Dance” group, in which a seated nymph fastens her sandal for the dance while a satyr snaps his fingers and plays the foot-clapper....The present group might not have appeared as straightforward to an ancient viewer as it does to a modern observer. The figure on the right might not be a nymph after all, but Hermaphroditos, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, and Pan’s gesture of lifting the drapery might represent, beyond the obvious sign of his lustful intentions, the dramatic and suspensful moment preceding the discovery of his companion’s gender. If this is indeed the case, the group could be the ambiguous start to a broader erotic narrative of which several Hellenistic marble groups would depict the ensuing moment: the drapery has fallen off, thus revealing Hermaphroditos ambiguous identity, but Pan grabs his playmate and throws him on his lap in spite of the latter’s attempt to escape by pushing him away....The Hellenistic element of theatrical surprise, or rather the anticipation of it, which is so central to representations of the sleeping Hermaphrodite (see Pollitt, op. cit., p. 149), probably plays a role in the present group as well."

It has an estimate of $150,000 to $250,000. It failed to sell.

The cover illustration of this auction's catalogue is a detail of Lot 64, a marble Roman Imperial relief fragment from the corner of a sarcophagus depicting the abduction of Persephone by Hades with Hermes leading the way into the Underworld. Dated circa 225-250 A.D., the fragment is 21 inches high. "This important myth, with its emphasis on death and renewal," the catalogue entry observed, "was particularly appropriate for sarcophagus decoration. It was at the centre of the Greek fertility cult known as the Eleusinian mysteries, which promised their initiates a better fate in the afterlife, and lasted well into the Roman period

It has an estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. It sold for $120,000.

Another Roman Imperial marble relief fragment is Lot 63. It is dated Hadrianic, circa 130 A.D., and measures 19 3/8 by 32 3/4 inches. The present relief, according to the catalogue, "was once built into the wall of the courtyard of the Palazzo Martelli in Florence, where it was coupled with another sarcophagus fragment depicting tritons and naiads flanking a portrait bust (now in the Indiana University Art Museum: Guide to the Collections, Bloomington, Ind., 1980, p. 61); it is there that the celebrated Florentine painter Giovanni Domenico Ferretti (1692-1768) made a drawing of it...." The lot was an estimate of $75,000 to $125,000. It failed to sell.

Lot 62 is a fine marble portrait head of Menander, Late Roman Imperial, circa 4th/5th Century A.D. It is 11 1/2 inches high and depicts the Athenian poet of the New Comedy, circa 342-293 B.C. The present head," the catalogue maintained, "was probably part of a set of portraits representing Greek philosophers and men of letters, such as the late 5th Century A.D. group found at Aphrodisias, which included Pindar, Aristotle, Alcibiades, Pythagoras, and probably Menander as well....The renowned and erudite poet Menander was born in Athens circa 342 B.C. to distinguished and well-to-do parents. He wrote over one-hundred works and achieved a reputation for a remarkable inventiveness, the skilful arrangement of his plots, realistic depiction of characters, and a refined and amusing wit. Menander died at the height of his powers at age fifty-two, drowning while bathing in the waters of Piraeus. His plays were copied and read well into the early Byzantine period, even though they were probably no longer performed." It has an estimate of $125,000 to $175,000. It failed to sell.

Lot 65 is a small and very charming marble relief panel, Roman Imperial, Antonine, circa 150-175 A.D. It measures 11 1/4 by 15 3/4 inches and is carved with Dionysos and Ariadne riding in a lion-drawn chariot. It has a modest estimate of $8,000 to $12,000. It sold for $27,000.

Lot 73 is a nice pair of Roman lion-head handles, circa 2nd Century A.D. The handles are 4 11/16 inches in diameter. The lot has an estimate of $12,000 to $18,000. It sold for $28,800.

Lot 69 is a very nice bronze figure of Isis-Aphrodite, Roman, circa 2nd Century A.D. It is possible, the catalogue notes, "that the base originally supported ancillary figures such as Priapus or erotes." The statue is 8 1/4 inches high and has an estimate of $5,000 to $8,000. It sold for $8,400.

Lot 46 is an impressive Greek marble head of a goddess, Hellenistic Period, circa mid-2nd Century B.C. It is 16 1/2 inches high.

The catalogue entry for this lot observes that "Bernard Andreae...notes that the present head bears a close resemblance to the relief head of Artemis on the east frieze of the Pergamon Altar." "The present head belonged to a monumental cult statue which might have been shown enthroned, like the cult statue of Demeter from her sanctuary at Knidos, now in the British Museum...," the entry continued, "or as a standing draped figure perhaps like the clothed Aphrodite offered by Praxiteles to the people of Knidos who rejected her in favor of her famed nude counterpart.....While the identity of the goddess represented here is open to debate in the absence of attributes, her sensuous mouth and swanlike neck with prominent Venus-rings suggest Aphrodite. The back of the head is carved flat for attachment to a separately sculpted body, while the crown is stippled for the attachment of a veil or perhaps the fold of a garment." It has an estimate of $500,000 to $800,000. It sold for $721,000.

Lot 54 is a Greek bronze helmet, Crete, Orientalizing Period, circa mid-7th Century B.C.

The catalogue notes that the crown is "incised with a continuous row of alternating arches and palmettes supporting four mythological scenes divided by vertical ridges and comprising a warrior departing from a woman raising her hands in a gesture of mourning, the warrior holding a circular shield and wearing greaves, corslet, and high-crested Cretan helmet; Apollo kitharoidos flanked by two pairs of birds in flight and accompanied by a striding figure wearing a short garment before a lion regardant; a centaur holding an arrow (?), probably Chiron, accompanied by a standing figure; and Perseus presenting Medusa's head to Athena in a cauldron (?), the goddess wearing a long robe incised with rosettes, aegis, and high-crested Cretan helmet; an incised animal figure below a rosette in each of the four spandrels above, the crest ornamented with alternating ridges and finely incised rows of guilloche, wave pattern, and interlace."

The catalogue noted that "for the only other known exemple of this Cretan type see the closely related mid-7th Century B.C. fragmentary helmet now at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg....The form of the 7th-Century high-crested Cretan helmet derives from Oriental prototypes, such as the Assyrian helmets depicted on wall-reliefs from the Central Palace at Nimrud, from the time of Tiglat-Pilesar, 745-727 B.C....The four mythological scenes on this helmet count among what Max Wegner calls "legend-pictures;" with their iconographical experiments these vignettes set the stage for the development of Greek myth in art, and "were viable seeds sown on fertile ground, from which were reaped, in the sixth century, a magnificent harvest of narrative pictures " (Greek Masterworks of Art, New York, 1961, p. 74).

The 17-inch high helmet has an estimate of $250,000 to $350,000. It sold for $508,800.

Lot 57 is a fine Sardinian bronze figure of a warrior that is dated circa 9th/7th Century B.C. The 7-inch high figure has an estimate of $50,000 to $80,000. It failed to sell.

Lot 13 is a very good Egyptian limestone relief fragment from the second half of the 6th Dynasty, circa 2440-2195 B.C. It measures 42 1/2 by 43 1/2 inches. It has an estimate of $75,000 to $125,000. It sold for $84,000.

Lot 15 is an excellent Egyptian limestone relief fragment, 19th Dynasty, Period of Ramesses II, 1279-1213 B.C. It measures 14 1/2 by 22 1/8 inches. The catalogue observes that it is "inscribed for the official Neferhotep and mentioning the city of Memphis, carved in shallow relief with Neferhotep kneeling with his hands raised in adoration before a statue of the god Atum, Neferhotep wearing a diaphanous pleated garment, double-stranded gold necklace (the "Gold of Valor"), short beard, and striated wig with layered curls at the shoulder, Atum holding an ankh in the right hand and was-scepter in the left, and wearing a kilt, tunic with shoulder-straps, broad collar, curled beard, and the crown of Upper and Lower Egypt with spiral, his ceremonial bull's tail falling in front, an offering table laden with lotus flowers and libation vessels between the figures, columns of inscription in the field; remains of blue and red pigment."

It has an estimate of $60,000 to $80,000. It sold for $144,000.

Lot 19 is a fine Egyptian polychrome cartonnage mummy pectoral from the Later Ptolemaic Period, 200-30 B.C. It measures 10 3/4 by 14 inches. It has a modest estimate of $6,000 to $9,000. It sold for $10,800.

Lot 6 is a very fine pair of Egyptian alabaster canopic jars from the 19th Dynasty, 1292-1240 B.C. One is 16 1/2 inches high and the other 16 3/16 inches high. The jars are inscribed for Amenemipet of Memphis, Child of the Royal Nursery. "The goddess Neith is invoked on one jar to watch over the god Duamutef and the contents, namely the stomach. On the other jar, the goddess Nephthys is invoked to extend her protection over the god Imsety and the contents, the liver," according to the catalogue. The lot has an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000. It sold for $60,000.

Lot 8 is an Egyptian banded alabaster canopic jar from the 26th Dynasty, 664-525 B.C. It is 13 inches high. It has an estimate of $20,000 to $30,000. It sold for $90,000.

Lot 43 is a Cycladic marble figure of a goddess that is 9 11/16 inches high. It is dated to the Early Bronze Age II, circa 2600-2500 B.C. It has an estimate of $175,000 to $225,000. It failed to sell.