A ROMAN BRONZE PHALLUS AMULET, CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A ROMAN BRONZE PHALLUS AMULET, CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D. Cast in the round, of characteristic form with a naturalistically modelled shaft rising from a rounded scrotum, the whole surmounted by a small integral suspension loop set above the glans. The surface retains a dark patina with earthen deposits and warm orange-red cuprite accretions concentrated along the upper portion and at the base, the metal otherwise smooth from wear and handling. The phallus, or fascinum, was among the most widely produced apotropaic devices of the Roman world. Worn as a pendant on a cord around the neck, suspended from harness fittings, hung above doorways, or mounted at street corners and bridges, its function was to deflect the evil eye (invidia) and the malign attention that success, beauty, and fertility were believed to attract. The image was understood not as obscene but as protective, its power residing in the capacity of laughter and startlement to disarm hostile forces. Pliny records the practice of attaching a fascinum beneath the chariot of a triumphing general, precisely so that the concentrated envy of the crowd would be broken by the sight. Small cast bronze examples of this type were produced in considerable numbers across the western provinces from the first through the third centuries, in workshops serving both military and civilian markets. Suspension-loop examples such as the present were worn on the person, most often by children, for whom the risk of the evil eye was thought greatest. The choice of bronze carried its own weight: a durable, non-perishable metal appropriate for a device intended to accompany the wearer through daily life, and one whose manufacture placed such amulets within the reach of a wide social range rather than restricting them to elite commission. This amulet is a representative example of the small personal fascinum in bronze, the form reduced to its essential apotropaic outline and worn smooth by contact with the body it was made to protect. It exemplifies the Roman conception of the phallus as an active instrument of protection rather than a symbol of it, an object whose meaning is inseparable from its use. Dimensions: Length 4.5 cm

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