Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
ADJUNCT MODULE C: WORLD ART
Preferred Title:
Ptolemy Apion of Cyrene
Alternate Title:
Bust of Thespis Auletes
Image View:
Overall three quarter view from the right
Creator:
unknown (Roman (ancient) sculptor)
Location:
repository: Museo Archeologico Nazionale (Naples, Campania, Italy) 5598
Location Note:
Piazza Museo, 19
GPS:
40.853378 14.250486
Date:
49-25 BCE (creation)
Cultural Context:
Roman (ancient)
Style Period:
Imperial (Roman)
Work Type 1:
sculpture (visual work)
Classification:
Sculpture and Installations
Material:
bronze
Technique:
casting (process)
Subjects:
portrait; rulers and leaders; Herculaneum (Extinct city); bust; Ptolemaic
Description:
Found in the square peristyle of the Villa of the Papyri at Herculaneum. Herm head with corkscrew curls that may be a 18th-century restoration, traditionally identified as Ptolemy Apion, king of Cyrene, or Berenice. Ptolemy Apion (ca. 150-96 BCE) was the last Greek Cyrenaean (Libyan) King and was a member of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Ptolemy was Greek and native Egyptian in descent. Berenice was the name of several Ptolemaic queens. The bust has also been described as an Arabian Sovereign, or possibly; Aulus Gabinius; Cleopatra Thea; the flautist Thespis Auletes. (Source: Mattusch, Carol C.; Villa Dei Papiri at Herculaneum: Life and Afterlife of a Sculpture Collection, Los Angeles: Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2005 (978-0892367221))
Collection:
Archivision Adjunct Module C: World Art
Identifier:
7A3-R-NAM-VP-PT-A02
Rights:
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.

Ptolemy Apion of Cyrene