Large amber bust carved in the round representing... Lot 78

Large amber bust carved in the round representing Menelaus after an antique. The warrior's head is turned to the left, wearing a helmet with a curved tip decorated with a centaur fight; his broad face is adorned with a short, full beard. Rome, probably late 18th century or earlier. H. 15.5 cm - Weight : 550 g Gilded bronze pedestal Total height 23 cm Provenance : - Former private collection, USA Works consulted : - M. Ratti and A. Marmori, Sculture e Oggetti d'Arte, La Spezia. Museo civico Amedeo Lia, ed. Silvana Editoriale, 1999, cat.4.9, p 153. Solid amber pieces sculpted in the round and depicting human figures are rare. We can cite a few emperor busts, such as the 17th-century one in the Museum of La Spezia (inv. Am162), 9.5 cm high, and another at public auction in 2018, 11 cm high, indicated as 18th-19th century (Paris sale, Copages Auction, March 9, 2018, lot 59, fig.a). This beautiful head of Menelaus appears to be based on a bust from the 2nd century A.D. in the Vatican, itself based on a Greek original from the 3rd-2nd centuries B.C. (fig.b). This bust was found during excavations in 1769 in Tivoli, excavated from Hadrian's Villa. It was immediately copied and interpreted in different materials: marble, bronze, terracotta, plaster... In 2010, Galerie Kugel's Anticomania exhibition featured a fine bust of Menelaus in gold, amethyst, emerald prime and rock crystal, dated circa 1780 and attributed to the Roman silversmith Luigi Valadier (fig.c). To be on the safe side, the production of this impressive bust, carved in a superb dark, translucent Baltic amber from a former American collection, is presented as late 18th century, although the appearance of this precious material would suggest an earlier period... There is no reason to doubt that another antique, a copy of the same Greek original, served as a model long before the Vatican bust was discovered.