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Syria

Palmyrene bust

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Object Details

Culture

Syria

Date

Second to third century AD

Medium

Limestone

Dimensions

10 3/4 × 12 × 7 3/4 inches (27.3 × 30.5 × 19.7 cm)

Credit Line

Acquired through the generosity of Richard F. Tucker, Class of 1950, and Genevieve M. Tucker

Object
Number

2002.025

Provenance:

-1931 Émile-Pierre Bertone (1867-1931), Paris [1]; 1931- private collection, Fr(…)

Provenance:

-1931 Émile-Pierre Bertone (1867-1931), Paris [1]; 1931- private collection, France (sold through Hôtel des Ventes de Neuilly-sur-Seine, 14 Dec. 1931, cat. no. 681, illus.) [2]. 2002 collection of Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University (sold through Sotheby’s, New York, Antiquities and Islamic Art auction, June 13, 2002, sale NO7812, lot. no. 0020)

N.B. Provenance is based on research into historic information and documentation. Such research is ongoing, and records may be revised or updated from time to time. Complete provenance is the exception, not the rule.

[1] – [2] Sotheby’s New York. “Antiquities and Islamic Art.” June 13, 2002, sale NO7812 [an auction cat.]; p. 18, lot no. 0020, illus. p. 19.

——

Label text:

This limestone slab with carved funerary relief was once attached to the wall of a tomb outside the city of Palmyra. Because Palmyra was a Roman city at the edge of the eastern region of the empire, this bust represents a mingling of cultural elements. The hairstyle and the robe are Roman, but the frontal, symmetrical presentation of the head and the stylized treatment of the robe’s folds are provincial. The chiseled Aramaic inscription to the left of the young man’s head reads, “Woe! Gadiâ (son of) Taibbol, (son of) Nur_teh.”

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