Table

WESTERN/MINOR ARTS: METALWORK/ART MARKET; ROMAN; DETAIL OF WOLF'S HEAD LEGS; (c. 50BC - 50AD); art market; bronze H: 69.8cm; Sotheby's Auction Catalogue, 6/18/91, #155; (see slide #518.5 K8.000x 91/92); BRILLIANT GIFT JAN 06 1993; 155; A Roman Bronze Table, late Roman Republic/early Imperial circa 50 B.C. - 50 A.D., the rectangular top supported on four slender legs each in the form of a wolf's head springing from acanthus inverted above the animal's lower leg and paw, the top engraved in the center with a foliate escutcheon comprising a wreath encirciling a quatrefoil and palmette motif, and at each corner with a six-petal rosette, the four sides below each finely inlaid in remains of silver (and niello) with a meander frieze within wave borders above and below, the two long sides with end panels each containing a lattice of four-petal rosettes, the legs on one side of the table (one fragmentary) each formerly inlaid in the same technique almost overall with olive branches, an ivy leaf kymation on the top of the support, the legs on the other side (one replaced, the other fragmentary) with simple swag molding on teh scroll ad no additional surface ornament, the finely detailed wolf heads with sharp bared teeth, eyes with pupils formerly inlaid, and thick shaggy oat over the ears and neck.; Heigh 27 1/2 in. (69.8 cm); top 32 by 20 1/2 in. (81.3 by 52.1 cm). Provenance: Luigi Grassi Collection, Florence; Piero Tozzi Galleries, New York; Three related tables are in Naples, the legs ornamented respectively with satyrs holding hares (from Pompeii), youths wearing Phrygian caps, and horses' heads. The first has the same olive branch ornament on the flaring supports. Cf. Richter, Furniture of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans ,fig. 563, and Tarbell, Bronzes, fig. 25 (reproduction). Compare Pompeii A.D. 79, nos. 174, 175 and 176, for the friezes.