Dios Lar. Roman, 1st century AD. Bronze. In very... Lot 92

Dios Lar. Roman, 1st century AD. Bronze. In very good state of preservation. Provenance: private collection Vienna 1950s, private collection London 1970 and French collection 2021. Measures: 34 x 19 x 10,5 cm. God Lar in bronze, of high quality. The Lars were divinities of domestic worship (linked to the home), but also linked to the territory (frontiers, crossroads, etc.). The one we are dealing with corresponds to the Lar de Compital modality. He is depicted (as was usual for this type of deity) as a young, agile man, dressed in a cut tunic that flutters, with abundant folds and sinuous ends to the cloak. The cloth is knotted at the waist in a natural manner. The head is girded with a diadem of palmettes. From the position of both arms, we can deduce that in the left hand she would be holding a pátera in her left hand and in the right a cornucopia or rhyton in her right hand. His attitude suggests a dance step or a type of gesture required for a cultic act. The Lares Compitales, originally protectors of fields and crossroads, became, from the time of the religious reform carried out by Augustus, the family and domestic divinities par excellence. Each house had its altar or lararium in the atrium or peristyle, a place where the whole family worshipped daily. At the end of the 4th century, an edict of the Emperor Theodosius prohibited their veneration. The Lares, so called because they were the children of the naiad Lara, were guardian deities in Ancient Rome. Their origin is to be found in the Etruscan cults of the family gods. The Lares were believed to protect and influence everything that happened where they were located. Although they are often classified as household gods, they had wider domains beyond the home: they protected roads, sea lanes, agriculture..... Each city, state and army had its own Lares. Those who protected the neighbourhoods were housed in crossroads shrines (Compitales), which served as the centre of the religious, social and political life of their communities.