8⁷⁄₈ in. (22.5 cm.) high

Collection Mariaud de Serres, France, acquired before 2000.
Collection Jean-Philippe Mariaud de Serres, Christie's, Paris, 16-17 February 2011, lot 413.

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Lot Essay

This fragment is from a lenos, a tub-shaped sarcophagus. The theatrical, flattening and distorting of the face with the technique of leaving sections of the marble between the animals' fur, known as "bridging", are typical of late 2nd-early 3rd Century sculpture. It is likely that the sarcophagus depicted the exercises of trainers with goads and African lions. Cf. M. Comstock and C.C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Musuem of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, 1976, p. 154, no.244A, for a close parallel.