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  • Support for an Oblong Water Basin

Support for an Oblong Water Basin
Roman, 2nd century A.D.
Porphyry; L. 58 1/2 in. (148.6 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1992 (1992.11.70)

Curator Comment

Under Roman rule the quarrying of red porphyry in the eastern desert of Egypt, at Mons Porphyrites (near the Suez Canal), was an imperial monopoly, and its use was reserved for prestigious works in architecture and sculpture. This massive base, displaying a concave resting surface at the top, is one of a pair that originally supported a deep oblong water basin; half of its mate is set into a wall in the Palazzo Capponi, Florence, and the other half is in a private collection in Scotland. Water basins with elaborate supports of this type were produced primarily in the second century A.D. Each end of this magnificent example is decorated with a lion's head emerging from an abbreviated "chest" of acanthus leaves and terminates in an enormous paw. The bold heavy forms, careful finish, and high polish all attest to the artist's command over this material, the most noble but also one of the most difficult to work of all colored stones. 

Elizabeth J. Milleker, associate curator, Department of Greek and Roman Art 

Provenance

Stefano Bardini, Florence; William Waldorf Astor, later, first Baron Astor of Hever, purchased after 1893 and placed at Hever after 1905; his descendants; sale, Sotheby's, London, July 11–12, 1983, lot 355; [Robin Symes, London]; Mrs. Barbara Johnson, Princeton, N.J.; Sotheby's, New York, December 17, 1992, lot 152.

Bibliography

Donald Strong, "Some Unknown Classical Sculpture: The First Published Account of the Sculpture in William Waldorf Astor's Italian Gardens at Hever Castle," Connoisseur 158 (April 1965), p. 221; Gavin Astor, Statuary and Sculpture at Hever (Ipswich: [s.n.], 1969), no. 94; Gabriella Capecchi, The Historical Photographic Archive of Stefano Bardini: Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Art (Florence: Alberto Bruschi, 1993), p. 44, no. 151, p. 183, pl. 151; Carlos A. Picón, "Support for an Oblong Water Basin," Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1992–1993. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 51, no. 2 (Fall 1993), pp. 18–19; Carlos A. Picón et al., Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007), pp. 396, 497, no. 465.

Related Links

Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History