Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020

English Edition

Editorial

Dear readers

Over half a year has passed since the pandem- ic swept over us in the spring of 2020, bring- ing with it far-reaching consequences for our lives, both private and professional. Much that at first seemed utterly alien or inconceivable has since become normal, and the art market, too, has proved astonishingly adaptable. At the time of writing, art dealers are still largely prevented from using the channels through which they customarily operate. Many fairs and exhibitions have been cancelled or post- poned, and those that are taking place again have had to make numerous adjustments to guarantee the health and safety of both visi- tors and exhibitors alike. Packing for the Highlights International Art Fair Munich, October 2020. But it is not all bad. On the contrary, I think we can learn a lot of positive lessons from am deeply grateful. The videos even prompt- City project (artcity.online/visit-artcity#reg- this crisis. The slower pace of life that has ed some sales, and by no means just minor ister-form) as well as boosting our online been forced upon us is actually beneficial ones, despite the impossibility of inspecting presence at TEFAF (tefaf.com/visitors/sign_ in that we now have the time to look criti- the originals prior to purchase. I would there- up). cally at old habits. The carrousel of art fairs, fore like to take this opportunity to thank you for example, was turning too fast. There are for the trust placed in me. We have also start- In spite of – or perhaps because of – the pre- still too many such events, making it hard to ed using digital platforms like Instagram – dominance of the virtual necessitated by the know which ones to attend. And since fairs albeit rather reticently owing to my unease pandemic, more and more people are now are also a financial burden, the scaling back at the compulsion to be original. feeling the need to engage with art, and we had to do this year was not entirely un- conceivably even more so than before. I am welcome. There can be no doubt that because of the therefore looking forward to TEFAF Maas- current situation, the digitalization of the tricht coming up in the new year, which for As fairs are also our principal means of stay- art world is gaining pace much faster than all the restrictions promises to be a great ing in touch with customers, however, their it would have otherwise, and there are also event. TEFAF Maastricht 2021 will take place cancellation presented an opportunity to try signs that online shopping, as has long been in June 2021! out some creative alternatives. Right at the practiced in the clothing business, will soon start of the crisis we reached out by posting be standard practice in the art business, too. video messages, often filmed in a rather ad Virtual gallery visits that allow for live con- hoc fashion that gave preference to the au- versations and interaction with works of art thentic over the staged. We nevertheless re- are already being prepared in many places. ceived many positive responses, for which I We will therefore be taking part in the Art

Our Online Auctions with Ancient Art In memoriam J. Robert Guy (1949-2020) Our next online auction using the platform We are also offering digital private pre- LiveAuctioneers will take place in Decem- views via Zoom or WhatsApp. Please do It was with great sorrow that we bid ber. Two weeks prior to the auction you not hesitate to contact us to schedule such farewell to our esteemed friend and n Marc Fehlmann will receive a link by e-mail which will an online meeting or if you have any other colleague, J. Robert Guy, who passed enable you to view the catalogue and to questions: [email protected] away this July. His life and work will place written bids. Furthermore, you will be the subject of a special feature in also be able to bid live online during the CQ4/2020. auction itself.

CQ 1 Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020

The Collector’s Point of View The Genesis of a Private Collection of Animals in Ancient Art

By Peter Steinmann

A BULL AND A FOAL. H. 11.3 cm. . Greek, 5th cent. B.C. Sold A WINGED LION. L. 5.6 cm. Ivory. Eastern Greek, late 5th cent. B.C. Sold

What prompted me to start collecting an- ness, patience and paternal indulgence of enriching. Owing to the lack of certain ba- cient art at the age of sixteen is a question several dealers. With my schoolboy’s and sics, not having a background in art history I am frequently asked. The answer is more later my student’s budget I cannot possi- can be a disadvantage; but it can also be an easily described than explained. I grew up bly have been of any economic interest to advantage as it allows you to approach the in a home steeped in a quintessentially Ba- them, yet they took the time to answer my matter impartially and to pursue parallels sel brand of humanism, and although my questions and let me spend hours examining and differences that transcend geographical, parents did not collect anything specific, their objects, even accepting reservations cultural and temporal boundaries. These are they did frequent art and antiquities fairs. and payment in instalments. The realization what give a collection in the making its in- We children were invited to go along too, that these gallery owners were not out to dividuality and what reflect the interests and if we wanted. And that’s when it happened. make a quick sale, but were themselves gen- the personality of the collector. And it is pre- Certain objects caught my eye, and then I uinely interested in the objects they sold no cisely this that makes private collections so discovered that some of them were actual- doubt helped deepen and affirm the interest charming in a way that museum collections ly affordable, even for my modest budget. that I had already developed. Sharing this are not. The foundation stone of my collection of with others of like mind still means a lot to animals in ancient art – a field that has re- me even today. I have long regarded my own collection as a mained a passion of mine to this day – was fragment – a fragment of the collection that an Egyptian amulet in the shape of a lion There is both an intellectual and an emotion- I would have liked to amass. Complement- dating from the Late Kingdom. It had been al side to building up a collection. We can ing the physically existent collection are damaged and glued back together again and reconstruct the everyday lives and the reli- those objects that are present only in my for more experienced collectors was but a gious-spiritual world of the Ancient Greeks mind. Some of these are pieces which, giv- paltry thing. For me, however, it was a work and Romans and the Ancient Egyptians at en the means, I would want to buy if ever of great charm and enigmatic beauty. The least up to a point. But what do we know they turned up on the market; but others are choice of theme was only natural, given that of the world of the Etruscans, of other Med- objects that I would no longer endeavour to I had been interested in animals since early iterranean cultures, of all the civilizations acquire. This is also true of certain objects childhood and would go on to study biology. in Western Asia and Mesopotamia, in Per- that are physically present in the collection. sia and Central Asia? Building a collection As I never sell anything, my collection still The leap from occasional buyer to collector of works from these cultures is quite a chal- contains items that I would not buy again, came about largely as a result of the kind- lenge for a layman; but it is also profoundly but that have come to matter to me none-

2 CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020 theless, whether through a story connected Gallery with them or as testimony to the develop- ment of my taste, my experience and hence of me as an individual. Every acquisition – and every non-acquisition, since they are also part of the collection history – is the Cahn Contemporary result of different factors that interact in different combinations and different inten- By Jean-David Cahn sities. Perhaps the object has a collection history or perhaps even a previous owner I know? Can I afford the piece? Is the ob- ject compatible with my current notion of how the collection should develop? Will this purchase render me unable to acquire a perhaps more desirable work that may soon come onto the market? And perhaps no less important is mood: the spontaneous associations that an object evokes in me, the personal events or stories that I connect it with. One key factor is the special fasci- nation that the animal (or chimera) holds for me personally; it must speak to me and stand out from all the others. If all of that is right, then I can only hope that the ob- ject is still unsold, because often I agonize for so long that someone else gets in there before me.

What drives me deep down, however, is the beauty of these ancient objects, which even in these fast-paced times of ours still have In autumn 2020, the Dierking Gallery on Zurich’s Paradeplatz showed and models by the German artist, the capacity to stop us in our tracks, invit- Otto Boll, who was born in Issum near Geldern in 1952. The works of his on show were presented alongside works of ing us to dwell on the unending fascination, ancient art that the sculptor himself had selected from the Cahn Gallery collection. the diversity and the abundance of our world and our history. So what this is really about As anyone who keeps track of developments 2021 we plan to use the 400 m2 at our dis- is joy – the pure joy we take in aesthetical- on the art market and at exhibitions will posal to stage still more Cahn Contemporary ly persuasive images of living creatures that have noticed, contemporary art is becom- artist projects. tell of the artistry, skill, and understanding ing an ever more powerful presence, even in of the natural world of bygone cultures. Europe. Especially striking is the number of living artists whose work has been shaped by an engagement with history and archae- ology.

That is what inspired me to found Cahn Con- temporary in in 2019. The idea was to stage exhibition projects in which contem- porary artists entered into a dialectical rela- tionship with ancient art. These projects are undertaken in partnership with the galleries that represent the artists in question, to date Jocelyn Wolff (galeriewolff.com), Marcelle Alix (marcellealix.com) and Eric Dupont (er- ic-dupont.com). This autumn we launched our first such project in Switzerland, Otto Boll – Fundstücke/Schauwerkzeuge (11 Sep- tember – 15 November), which was a col- laboration with the artist Otto Boll and the Dierk Dierking Gallery in Zurich (dierking. Dr. Peter Steinmann, 42, is an epi- ch). There are also plans for a joint presence demiologist with Associate Professor at Art Cologne. qualification (“Habilitation”). He works as a project manager at the Swiss Trop- I am pleased to announce that Cahn Con- STATUETTE OF A COMEDY ACTOR. H. 8.7 cm. Bronze. ical and Public Health Institute in Basel, temporary will soon be extending its ac- Greek, 4th cent. B.C. with an intervention by the artist Otto Boll. The statuette is dwarfed by its dispropor- where he specializes in neglected trop- tivities to Basel, too. Having found some tionately large plinth. Resting on a single point in the ical diseases. excellent, centrally located exhibition and figure’s left hand is a line that sweeps down deep into storage space to rent in Basel, starting mid- the space surrounding it.

CQ 3 Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020

Discovered for You Toga, Tunic and Stola

A Foray into the World of Roman Garments

By Gerburg Ludwig

Fig. 1: Ara Pacis Augustae, detail of the south frieze, , Campus Martius. Roman, 9 B.C. Photograph: Fig. 2: A PALUDAMENTUM BUST WITH A PORTRAIT OF A MAN. Sailko, Wikimedia Commons H. 78 cm. Marble. Roman, 2nd half of 1st cent. A.D. Price on request After our excursion into the world of Greek gustan Peace, 9 B.C., Campus Martius, Rome) threaded up on the inside and then gathered garments in the two previous issues it is time presents the Imperial family in typically Ro- up in a roll of cloth (umbo) over the balteus. to turn our attention to Roman sartorial hab- man garb (fig. 1, 1st row): Tiberius on the The umbo later became a broad band that kept its. Roman attire developed primarily under far left and L. Domitius Ahenobarbus on the all the lengths of cloth in place (toga contabu- the influence of the Greeks in the colonies of far right each wear a tunic (simple shirt-like lata). When performing cultic acts, the wearer southern Italy and the neighbouring Etruscans. garment worn by both sexes) and draped pulled up the toga to cover his head. Coloured over it a voluminous, heavily pleated toga, borders, like purple stripes, were indicative of Ancient authors tell of the role of dress and while Drusus the Elder (in profile in the mid- social status, a woman’s/child’s special need appearance in the judgement of character dle) wears a short, belted tunic with paluda- of protection or the position of office hold- and as factors determining participation in mentum (general’s cloak) hanging down off er, such as consul or senator. In everyday life, society and even suitability for political of- his shoulders. The ladies, Antonia Minor and men combined the tunic with the pallium, a fice in Rome. How garments were used was Antonia Maior, wear a chiton or tunic and cloak similar to a himation. clearly regulated, meaning that dress was over it a palla (cloak) draped in the Hellenis- subject to social and political control, for ex- tic style so that it covers at least one arm. If True purple dye obtained from murex sea ample through sumptuary laws. The measur- covering the head, the palla can identify the snails was an exclusive and expensive com- ing gauge was the mos maiorum by which wearer as a married woman. All the children modity, trade in which was tightly regulat- time-honoured Roman customs and values wear the typical toga praetexta (with purple ed until, eventually, the emperor claimed a such as dignity, honour and duty were up- stripes), while the two boys also wear a bulla, monopoly over it. The symbolic meaning of held. Sarcastic commentaries on the luxu- a capsule-shaped, apotropaic amulet. this dye was most clearly apparent in trium- rious lifestyle of the elite targeted not only phal vestments, which can be traced back to their use of certain garments, fabrics, colours Virgil captured the importance of the toga the Etruscan kings. On arriving at the city and jewellery, but also the unequal distribu- to the Romans when he spoke of them as the limits of Rome, the triumphant general ex- tion of wealth between the various classes. “gens togata” (“toga-wearing race,” Aeniad 1, changed his weapons and armour for purple, According to current research, a mere 1.5 per 282). The white toga stood for Roman identi- gold-embroidered, bejewelled raiments: the cent of the Roman Empire’s ca. 70 million in- ty and Roman citizenship. On entering adult- tunica palmata and toga triumphalis. Don- habitants in mid-2nd century A.D. accounted hood, young men advanced to the toga virilis ning these, his face reddened with minium, for 25 per cent of its total income. The middle (the “toga of manhood”). The segment-shaped his head crowned with a laurel wreath, and in class – comprising just 10 per cent of the total cut and draping of the cloth derived from his hands an eagle sceptre and laurel branch, population – accounted for a further 25 per the Etruscan tebenna (the “ur-toga”), a cloak he would have seemed inviolable to the peo- cent. The remaining 50 per cent was shared known to us from 7th-century textile frag- ple watching him process through Rome to by the rest of the population (J. P. Wild, Tex- ments and from images dating from the mid- the Capitol. The emperor later adopted these tilien und das römische Konzept von Luxus, in 6th century B.C. onwards. Over time, this gar- triumphal vestments as his official regalia. Cat. Hildesheim 2013, 62). ment became ever more voluminous (ca. 5 m x 2.5 m). The bulk of the cloth ran from the left The paludamentum, which on military cam- The surviving textiles, magnificent state re- leg up to the neck and right armpit and from paigns was draped over the breastplate and liefs, murals, sculptures and statuettes paint there dropped down in a loose sling (balteus) shoulders, symbolized the general, and in the a varied picture of the Roman wardrobe. The that ran up over the left shoulder and down imperial portraits that came later the ideal im- south frieze of the Ara Pacis (the Altar of Au- the left flank. The remainder of the cloth was perator, as shown in Cahn Gallery’s over life-

4 CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020 size bust (fig. 2). At a later point in time, post- My Choice dating Antiquity, the bust was combined with a Republican portrait head that in a deliberate revival of ideal Roman values had been re- worked in the age of Vespasian. The paluda- mentum hanging somewhat asymmetrically Eros and Psyche across the breast exposes the flat folds of the tunic. A round fibula fixates the lengths of By Jean-David Cahn cloth. Overlapping leather straps (pteruges) on the arm hole of the breastplate cover the right thigh, foot, chlamys and shoulder, while an end of cloth with fringed frame.” (Münzen und Me- hem lies flat against the left. daillen AG, Basel, Auction 60, 21.9.1982, Lot 168). At her marriage, a young, upper-class bride would have worn a belted tunica recta that What I find especially she herself had woven, a flammeum (veil), touching about this highly vittae (bands) and a floral wreath in her hair. decorative work is the way If a woman combined a palla with chiton or a the cruelty of the subject foot-length tunic with a purple-hemmed sto- becomes apparent only on la, a belted or unbelted ankle-length throw closer inspection. To the with shoulder straps (institae), then she was chubby-cheeked god of love, clearly a married Roman citizen: a matrona. skipping along gracefully as Like the toga, the stola symbolized Roman he consigns the hapless but- identity and prosperity. Exquisite materials terfly to the deadly flames, such as silk from China, jewellery, and so- it is all just a game. He is phisticated coiffures were added to perfect not aware of the appalling the look for public appearances. consequences that his ac- tions will have. To quote my A bronze finial (fig. 3) at the Cahn Gallery father again: “Psyche, the shows a young girl in a tunic with a V-neck at human soul in the guise of both front and back; the flat modulated folds a butterfly as a plaything of rise up to the shoulders, where they are held in capricious Eros – this rich place by an oval fibula on each side. Her long vein was tapped first in Hel- hair is rolled over at either side and tied in a lenistic art and there treated knot at the nape of the neck. The lancet-shaped in all manner of ways until earrings make for an additional accent. finally the Romans gave it WITH EROS AND PSYCHE. H. 32.9 cm. Coarse-grained marble. Ro- an eschatological meaning The Roman wardrobe was subject to clear rules man, 1st half of 2nd cent. A.D. Price on request in their funerary art.” orientated to the mos maiorum. These provid- ed guidelines on how to appear in public and The pleasure of introducing you to this Here, I am reminded of something that Karl in this way influenced social cohesion. beautiful relief of Eros and Psyche is two- Schefold, my esteemed Professor of Archae- fold, deriving not just from the unusual ico- ology, once said: “ is conceptual!” Bibl.: M. Tellenbach et al., Die Macht der Toga. Dress­- nography, but from the fact that my father, Many Roman works were conceived not as Code im Römischen Weltreich, Cat. Hildesheim 2013 Herbert A. Cahn, described it in some de- decorative art, but as conceptual art, whose tail back in 1982. Here is an excerpt from purpose was to prompt further thought and his catalogue text, the succinct wording of discussion among all who saw them. This which is typical of his writing style: work of outstanding quality from the city of Rome is an excellent example of this. “Eros, in his right hand a lowered torch and in his left the captured Psyche, here a fat moth, flies towards a fire altar and there dangles the creature over the flames. The Imprint boy’s wings are outstretched; the tip of his right foot is touching the floor and his Publisher Gerburg Ludwig chlamys is fluttering out behind him from Jean-David Cahn Peter Steinmann Malzgasse 23 under his arm. Rosette-like drawing on the CH-4052 Basel Translations butterfly wings. The little fluted altar stands www.cahn.ch Bronwen Saunders on a low pedestal with lion’s paw feet. Relief ISSN 2624-6368 Yvonne Yiu

framed by round and flat mouldings; the in- Editors Photos ner edges of the tall frame at right and left Jean-David Cahn Niklaus Bürgin bevelled and at the top hollowed out down Yvonne Yiu Design and Layout to below the forehead and wings of Eros. Authors Michael Joos Outside edges smooth for 1.5 cm, thereaf- Jean-David Cahn ter picked. Verso cursorily smoothed. Right Martin Flashar Printer Fig. 3: A FEMALE BUST. H. 14.2 cm. Bronze. Formerly Ulrike Haase Rösch Printservice GmbH Hoving & Winborg, Stockholm, Auction 29.9.1917, lot fingertips with middle part of torch missing; 964. Roman, 2nd cent. A.D. CHF 7,300 worn: upper edges of the wings, sex, right

CQ 5 Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020

Silent Emotions? – Facial Expressions and Gestures in Antiquity New Artworks Monthly on www.cahn.ch

UPPER PART OF A FEMALE FIGURINE. A HEAD OF AN IDOL. H. 5.8 cm. Terracotta. A FINIAL WITH THE STYLIZED HEAD OF A A MALE IDOL. H. 4.7 cm. Bronze. The sche- H. 17 cm. Fired clay. Formerly priv. coll. Oval face and high forehead or headdress. MAN. H. 6.4 cm. Bronze. Globular eyes, pro- matic figure stands with his overdimen- Sam Dubiner, acquired between 1954-1958. Applied eyes with central incision. Former- jecting nose, wide mouth and moulded ears. sioned hands raised in a gesture of ado- Thereafter priv. coll. Zakary, Los Angeles, ly priv. coll. Thereafter Rupert Wace Probably a finial for a fibula. Formerly priv. ration. Formerly Coll. Levkovic. Thereafter USA, 1960s. Amlash Culture, ca. 10th-8th Ancient Art, Ltd., London, 2007 or earlier. coll. Martini, acquired in the 1990s. Greek, Coll. Dr. Wassilijew. Western Asia, 8th-7th cent. B.C. CHF 6,800 Thessaly, 7th-6th mill. B.C. CHF 6,500 Geometric, 8th cent. B.C. CHF 5,400 cent. B.C. CHF 2,200

A STATUETTE OF A LION. L. 8.8 cm. Bucchero. The stylised lion crouches on the ground with its jaws wide open and its ears alertly pricked. The slender body is perforated horizontally and the mouth, too, has a circular opening. Probably an applique that adorned a vessel or its lid. From the estate of the Swiss art dealer and collector Elsa Bloch-Diener (1922-2012), Berne, acquired between 1968 and 1983. Etruscan, 6th cent. B.C. CHF 8,200

A HEAD OF A HORSE. W. 13.3 cm. Clay, polychromy. Probably from a statuette that may have adorned a temple roof in the form of an akroterion. Formerly priv. coll. F. Bürki, Zurich, acquired 1979. Thereafter Swiss priv. coll., acquired 1994. Etruscan, 6th cent. B.C. CHF 16,800

A GORGONEION APPLIQUE. H. 6 cm. Ter- A HEAD OF A YOUTH. H. 8.9 cm. Terracotta. A FRAGMENT OF A BLACK-FIGURE COLUMN-KRATER. L. 22.8 cm. Clay. On the reserved up- racotta. The Gorgoneion was thought to be Formerly priv. coll. Tom Virzi (1881-1974), per surface of the rim a lion and a boar confront each other. The rest of the rim was probably capable of repelling bad influences. Former- New York. With Galleria Serodine, Ascona adorned with further animal pairs. The outside of the rim is decorated with two ivy chains ly Herbert A. Cahn, Basel. Thereafter priv. (publ.: Terrakotten aus Westgriechenland, As- separated by a thin band. The interior of the krater is glazed black. Formerly priv. coll. G. coll. Mirza Suter, Basel, since 1980. Western cona, 1994). Thereafter priv. coll. Switzerland. J., Germany, acquired 5.4.1986 from Roswitha Eberwein, Antike Kunst Göttingen. Attic, last Greek, ca. 480-470 B.C. CHF 1'200 Western Greek, 5th-4th cent. B.C. CHF 2,400 quarter of 6th cent. B.C. CHF 3,400

6 CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020

A WHITE-GROUND LEKYTHOS, ATTRIBUTED TO THE MANNER OF THE BIRD PAINTER. A DRAPED FEMALE STATUETTE. H. 20 cm. A HEAD AND PART OF BUST OF A FEMALE H. 24 cm. Clay. A young man is approached by a woman carrying a basket of wreaths. A duck Terracotta. Mould-made and finished by STATUETTE. H. 10.5 cm. Terracotta. Archaic stands between the couple. Formerly Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, 1956 (publ. Auction 12, hand. Formerly priv. coll. Lyon, , 1980s. smile. Formerly Coll. Walter Kropatschek, 19.6.1956, no. 150, illus.). Thereafter priv. coll. of the publisher M. Hagemann, Basel. Thence by Greek, probably Tanagra, 4th-2nd cent. B.C. Germany. Coll. A. P., United Kingdom. descent in the family. Attic, 430-410 B.C. CHF 12,800 CHF 5,200 Western Greek, ca. 500 B.C. CHF 8,800

AN ELEPHANT GROTESQUE. H. 8.3 cm. Ter- racotta. Formerly Münzen und Medaillen AG, Basel, 1962 (publ.: Sonderliste E, 1962, no. 97). Thereafter priv. coll. C. von Faber-Cas- A HEAD OF EROS. H. 14.5 cm. Marble. For- tell, Switzerland, acquired 1991 from Her- merly priv. coll. G., Normandy, France, by in- bert A. Cahn, Basel (publ.: Kunstwerke der heritance from her father. In possession of the Antike, Cat. 3, 1991, no. 32). Greek, 3rd-1st family since 1960 or earlier. Roman, late 1st cent. B.C. CHF 3,500 cent. B.C.-1st cent. A.D. CHF 8,800

A SMALL BRONZE HEAD OF A WOMAN. H. 5.7 cm. Bronze (hollow cast), gilding. Formerly Coll. Prof. Hans Dahn (1919-2019), Lausanne, formed mainly in the 1950s. Distinctive facial features and accurately modeled strands of hair. Late Etruscan, 3rd-2nd cent. B.C. CHF 12,000

A SMALL HEAD OF A BEARDED MAN (POS- SIBLY AJAX). H. 3.3 cm. Soapstone. Former- ly Coll. Friedlinger-Brandt. Thereafter Her- bert A. Cahn, Basel, 1990s. Greek, Hellenistic, 2nd cent. B.C. CHF 1,600

A THEATRE MASK REPRESENTING ATTIS. H. 23 cm. Terracotta, traces of light blue paint. Formerly Bonhams London, 3 April 1989, lot 18 with illus. Thereafter priv. coll. California, USA; acquired in 1995 from Hadji Baba. Roman, 1st cent. A.D. CHF 12,300

A LID IN THE FORM OF A THEATRE MASK. H. 5.7 cm. Bronze. Formerly Coll. Prof. Hans Dahn (1919-2019), Lausanne; acquired July ARCHAISTIC RELIEF HEAD OF A MALE DEITY. W. 16 cm. Marble. Formerly Coll. Prof. Hans 1959 from Donati. Roman, 1st-2nd cent. Dahn (1919-2019), Lausanne; acquired 25.2.1953 in Paris (Kalebdjian). Roman, Late Republi- A.D. CHF 2,200 can to Early Imperial Period, late 1st cent. B.C.-early 1st cent. A.D. CHF 28,000

CQ 7 Cahn’s Quarterly 3/2020

Highlight Heavy Garlands of Fruit Held High By Martin Flashar

in Hagenau in Alsace, is the only scholar to have devoted a whole section of his impor- tant book on terracot- tas to Erotes with gar- lands as a distinctive motif. He cites over a dozen examples, which differ in both detail and chronology, the differ- ences concerning both the number and posi- tion of the Amores and the contents and exact fall of the festoons. The relief at the Cahn Gallery belongs to the oldest group; a second CAMPANA RELIEF WITH EROTES. L. 48.5 cm. Terracotta. Roman, Late Augustan-Early Tiberian, early 1st cent. A.D. CHF 35,000 (von Rohden, pl. LIX Three chubby little winged Erotes grapple with ly defined and at its outer limits becomes 1) is so similar that it probably comes from a huge garland, heavily laden with fruit of all quite blurred. The name can be traced back the same mould (then: Roman art market, W. kinds – and, contrary to what one would ex- to the art collection of the Roman Marchese Helbig). The work can be dated on the basis pect, master the task manfully. What is behind G. Campana (1808–1880), who in 1842 pub- of the bulging, plastic garlands, the individ- this visual concept? In ancient imagery, gar- lished a magnificent book detailing the ter- ual fruits in which can be identified in detail. lands, as components of the cult, are familiar racotta reliefs in his possession, among them The piece constitutes an early and especially to us from sacrificial processions. Bulls, espe- one showing Erotes and garlands (pl. XV). high quality example of the genre. That it cially, were festooned with fruit and flowers The predominant themes, however, are myth- was originally painted must be assumed, giv- for their final journey to the altar in front of ical tales of gods and heroes, cultic scenes, en that the ends of the taeniae binding the the temple. This motif from living culture in- landscapes, and images of Roman life. The garlands in several places would have hung evitably migrated into the visual arts. Count- centuries-old Middle-Italian tradition of ar- down into areas of the relief ground that are less such representations adorn temple gates chitectural gave rise to small, now empty. and even more so altars, especially those from flat-modelled panels that were designed to be Hellenistic times. It is as if the cultic act had viewed not from afar, but close up – main- The provenance is also interesting. The ob- been artfully inscribed in stone at the place ly as decorative elements for sepulchral or ject comes from the property of the Swiss of performance. This is what these images domestic interiors. What had been a facade industrialist and art connoisseur, Dr. Arnold of bulls’ heads (bucephalia) or skulls (bucra- element thus mutated into an interior fitting; Ruesch (1882–1929), who edited an Italian nia) festooned with garlands of fruit and fo- an impulse to export these items seems not guide to the National Museum in Naples, liage live from. In this terracotta relief that to have existed. The largest and most mag- published in 1908. At his death in 1936, the erstwhile context has been abandoned and nificent Campana Reliefs were those belong- owner’s art collection was in large part auc- through the Erotes has entered the realm of ing to the Temple of Apollo and the House of tioned off (Galerie Fischer, Lucerne). Histor- myth. The exaggeration of the iconographic on the Palatine Hill in Rome, two ical photos provide evidence of where the roots is indicative of a conceptual rethink, the complexes that were conceived in tandem. relief was displayed. Ruesch, who in 1920–21 dawn of a new era. For the fact is, the little The reliefs were produced preferably in Rome, had a villa in the style of a Pompeiian peri- helpers from the Dionysian-Aphroditic con- with only a few coming from workshops else- style house built on the Zürichberg not far text denote a transformative shift to a new where in Italy. from the Grand Hotel Dolder, mounted it on cultural and political concept, that of the Au- a wall in the vestibule. How nice it is to have gustan Period. Now the garlands coalesce into Under discussion here is a terracotta panel this information – and what a pity that nei- symbols of wealth, abundance and happiness. that at the bottom ends in a straight hori- ther the villa nor the Ruesch Collection still To make sense, therefore, the Amores en min- zontal bar and at the top is crowned with an exist! Yet how wonderful it would neverthe- iature have to be read as erotic bearers of the egg-and-dart moulding – the equivalent of less be to possess a work of art as enchanting imperial promise of a coming Golden Age, the the sima in Classical architecture. Especially and historically exciting as this Campana Re- much vaunted Aurea Aetas so central to im- striking is the quality of the modelling, which lief with Erotes! perial propaganda. is often mediocre in this particular genre. As far as I can see, Hermann von Rohden (1852– Bibliography: H. von Rohden (assisted by H. Winnefeld), Ar- chitektonische römische Tonreliefs der Kaiserzeit (R. Kekulé The relief is an example of what are known 1916), an archaeologist who did his doctor- von Stradonitz [ed.], Die antiken Terrakotten, vol. IV), Berlin as Campana Reliefs. The genre is not clear- ate in Bonn and later taught at a gymnasium 1911, 187 ff., 268 f., pl. LXI.

8 CQ