A ROMAN GOLD FIGURINE OF FORTUNA, CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A ROMAN GOLD FIGURINE OF FORTUNA, CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D. Cast in the round as a standing female figure, the goddess is shown nude or lightly draped, the body rendered with a soft contrapposto, the weight carried on the right leg and the left slightly relaxed. The raised right arm extends upward, terminating in a summarily modelled attribute, while the left arm falls to the side against a subsidiary form rising from the integral rectangular base. The torso is smoothly modelled with a rounded abdomen and small breasts, the head tilted slightly and the facial features abbreviated in the manner typical of small-scale personal bronzes and precious-metal figurines. The surface retains a warm, lustrous gold tone with minor irregularities from the casting and use. The upright object held aloft in the right hand and the vertical support at the left side are consistent with the standard attributes of Fortuna, whose iconography couples the cornucopia, cradled or raised in one hand, with the rudder or gubernaculum resting against a globe at her side. The rudder identifies the goddess as the pilot of human affairs, guiding the course of fate, while the cornucopia signals the abundance she bestows upon those she favours. Together the two attributes fix her as the Roman personification of chance, prosperity, and the tutelary fortune of persons, households, cities, and the emperor himself. The choice of gold for a figurine of this scale is significant. Small-format gold statuettes of deities were not produced for public display but for private devotion, being worn as pendants, kept in domestic lararia, or carried as personal amulets. Gold in this context carries a double weight, marking both the material wealth of the dedicant and the incorruptible nature deemed appropriate to a divine image. Fortuna in particular attracted such intimate offerings, since her favour was petitioned in matters of daily life, travel, commerce, childbirth, and imperial service. The reduction of a monumental cult type to a portable, hand-held format is characteristic of Roman religious practice under the early Empire, in which the household and the person became sites of continuous devotional attention alongside the temple. The cult of Fortuna was among the most widely diffused of the Roman pantheon, with numerous specialised aspects, from Fortuna Primigenia at Praeneste to Fortuna Redux, invoked for the safe return of travellers and emperors, and Fortuna Augusta, tied to the person of the ruler. Her image circulated in every medium, from large-scale marble to coinage, gems, and precious-metal miniatures such as the present example, and her attributes remained stable across three centuries of imperial iconography. This figurine exemplifies the small-scale gold devotional sculpture of the early Empire, in which the standard iconography of a major deity is compressed into a portable, wearable format without loss of legibility. Its interest lies in the survival of a personal object in a precious material, the great majority of such pieces having been melted down in antiquity or later, and in its transmission of the fully formed Fortuna type at the scale of the hand. Dimensions: Height 2.9 cm

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