Roman
Provenance
Said to have been found in FranceSir Sidney Nolan (1917 - 1992) Collection
Christie's, London, 8 December 1993, lot 77
Sir Sidney Nolan was one of Australia’s most significant modernist artists. He spent time in Greece, on Hydra, in the 1950s where he became fascinated by Greek art, history, and literature.
Literature
The posture and thunderbolt attribute allow this bronze to be identified as Jupiter, but his physiognomy encourages a specific identification of the god in his Gallo-Roman form as Jupiter-Taranis, the god of thunder, lightning, and cosmic forces. Taranis was worshipped in Gaul and his attributes were the
thunderbolt (taran in Celtic) and a solar/cosmic wheel (or a wheel of the chariot of thunder). Following the Romanisation of Gaul, Taranis became syncretised with Jupiter. Given the hole pierced in the left hand of the figure, the attribute he held is likely to have been a sceptre, a distinctive attribute of Jupiter.The vertical piercing throughout indicates that the figure was intended as a fitting or finial, perhaps as a decorative element to a tripod base, possibly a candelabrum or a thymiaterion (incense burner). The flat top of the head would then act as a support for the lamp or cup.
For the iconography of Taranis and Jupiter cf. Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), vol. VII, 1994, s.v. Taranis: pp. 843-845; Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), vol. VIII, 1997, s.v. Zeus/Iuppiter: pp. 310-486. For the stylised form and facial features on Celtic bronzes and Gallo-Roman examples, see the Saint-Maur bronze warrior in the Musée de l'Oise; for British comparanda see the
Southbroom bronzes in the British Museum: R. Jackson, Roman Britain. Life at the Edge of Empire, London, 2010, p. 124.For related examples of candelabra and thymiateria with figural decorations, see: D.M. Bailey, A Catalogue of the Lamps in the British Museum: IV, Lamps of Metal and Stone and Lampstands, London, 1996, nos. Q 3862 (pl. 98-99), Q 3866 (pl. 101), Q 3905 (pl. 122-123); A. Testa, Candelabri e thymiateria, Rome, 1989, nos. 55-56, 58-59.