Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
Lot 64*
A small Greek marble naiskos with Cybele
6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £4,462.50 inc. premium
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Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
A small Greek marble naiskos with Cybele
Circa 4th Century B.C.
In the form of a rectangular naiskos with an unadorned pediment, the goddess enthroned, wearing a polos and a long chiton with a draped himation at her left shoulder, characteristically holding aloft a drum in her left hand and a bowl in her lowered right, a lion resting on her knees, now largely indistinguishable, the figures of Hermes Kadmilos and Hecate in low relief on the antae, now somewhat obscured, 14cm high, 9.5cm wide
Circa 4th Century B.C.
In the form of a rectangular naiskos with an unadorned pediment, the goddess enthroned, wearing a polos and a long chiton with a draped himation at her left shoulder, characteristically holding aloft a drum in her left hand and a bowl in her lowered right, a lion resting on her knees, now largely indistinguishable, the figures of Hermes Kadmilos and Hecate in low relief on the antae, now somewhat obscured, 14cm high, 9.5cm wide
Footnotes
Provenance:
with D. J. Crowther Ltd, London, November 1968.
Private collection, France, late 1980s.
This diminutive naiskos is of a type found in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, including one naming Cybele as 'Mother of the Gods' (acc. nos. 3538, 1540, 1554, 1555). Numerous examples have also been discovered in Piraeus; see Arachne database nos. 1167028 and 1167029. The depiction of the goddess with a drum and a lion on her lap is inkeeping with the so-called 'Phrygian type', also known as 'Mistress of the Animals'. For a similarly scaled sculpture, see Arachne database no. 1136855, a naiskos with two seated Cybele figures, in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. For a well-preserved, large-scale example of the type, again discovered in Piraeus, see a naiskos in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, acc. no. Sk 692.