150 - Monumental Roman Marble Funerary Stele to Senator Apellinarius and Kallisti. May he be Brought to Justice and Fined 5,000 Denarii for Impiety, and Payable to the Imperial Treasure

Monumental Roman Marble Funerary Stele to Senator Apellinarius and Kallisti. May he be Brought to Justice and Fined 5,000 Denarii for Impiety, and Payable to the Imperial Treasure 3rd century A.D. An extremely large and imposing funerary stela, divided into three distinct sections, surmounted by a triangular pediment within which is presented the head of a female with long braided hair; below this there is the first panel, a rectangular frame inscribed at the top with Greek inscription (translation by R. Falkiner): 'AND AS WE DISAGREE'; followed inside the frame by the facing portraits of Apellinarius and Kallisti depicted as equals, side-by-side, Apellinarius with wavy hair incised in stylised curls and wearing his toga over a simple tunic with a wide, v-shaped collar, and Kallisti shown as a commanding middle-aged matrona with the veil indicating married status falling from her voluminous hairstyle and draped around her shoulders; to the far left of the frame, a hand, carved in shallow relief within a square border; it follows another Greek inscription: 'GODS OF THE UNDERWORLD UPON THE EARTH ROOTED'; under it there is the second central panel representing, enclosed within bands of text, a conventional, stylised funerary scene in shallow relief, Apellinarius reclining on a high triclinium dining bed, wearing a heavily-draped toga supporting himself with his left hand, and holding a laurel wreath aloft in his right, Kallisti behind him in a similar pose with veil; to the far left a young man, dressed with a paenula, long trousers and closed calcei, holding a bird (dove?) in his right hand, possibly the couple's son, mourning his father and preparing to take his place as the male head of household; beneath the bed a small, highly stylised female slave wearing a peplos, her unveiled hair pulled into a bun at the nape of her neck, carrying a cup to the offering table; the following lower panel shows eight lines of Greek text, with a ninth incised on the frame below, keeping the following epigraphic cartridge, closed inside a tabula: 'KALLISTI (wife) OF BITHYS CONSTRUCTED THIS MONUMENT FOR HERSELF AND THE SENATOR (her son) APELLINARIUS SON OF APELLINARIUS THE WORTHY SENATOR AND PRIEST OF THE GOD APOLLO. HE LIVED TWENTY YEARS OUT OF HIS OWN MEANS AND WHO EVERYONE SAW NOT CAUSED PUBLIC EXPENSE, AND IF ANYONE IS CAUGHT DOING SOMETHING AGAINST (the grave) .MAY HE BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE AND FINED 5000 DENARII FOR IMPIETY, AND PAYABLE TO THE IMPERIAL TREASURE'. See Woysch-M autis, D., La repr sentation des animaux et des tres fabuleux sur les monuments fun raires grecs. De l poque archa que la fin du IVe si cle av. J.-C, Cahiers d Arch ologie Romande, no.21, Lausanne, 1982; Jovanova, L., Sepulchral monuments from Scupi (Colonia Flavia Scupinorum), in Funerary sculpture of the western Illyricum and neighbouring regions of the Roman Empire (ed. Cambi N., Koch G.), (proceedings of the International Scholarly Conference held in Split, Sept. 2009), 709-745, Split, 2013; Douitsi A., Funeral monuments in Macedonia during the Archaic and Classical periods, Thessaloniki, 2017; Proeva, N. Non-Figural Motifs on the Roman Funerary Stelae from Upper Macedonia (Problems of Dating and Interpretation in ????????? ? ?????????????? ???????? ???????? ????, vol. 7, Skopje, 2017, pp.147-158; this piece shows compositional similarities with the late second-century AD funerary relief of Neiki, wife of Onesimos, from the Roman province of Macedonia, displayed in the Archaeological Museum, of Thessaloniki. 443 kg, 164 x 95 cm including stand (64 1/2 x 37 1/2 in.). [A video of this lot is available to view on TimeLine Auctions Website] Property of a London gentleman; formerly in a private collection since the early 1970s. Previously acquired on the London art market in 1970. Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Laura Proffitt and Dr Raffaele D Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.10136-136699. The funerary monument was commissioned by a woman named Kallisti (meaning in Greek the most beautiful), in honour of her deceased son Apellinarius, son of Apellinarius, with 20 years already in the rank of a senator (of Rome or of the local gerousia?) and priest of Apollo. The woman within the triangular pediment is probably Persephone, wife of Hades, and Queen of the Underworld, considering the dedication of the stela to the Gods of the Underworld. The disembodied hand on the left of the panel was almost certainly intended to have an apotropaic function, protecting the family from evil in this world and the next. This symbol can be traced as far back as ancient Mesopotamia and the Near East, and retains its meaning to this day in the form of the hamsa and 'hand of Fatima' motifs popular in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. The bird in the hand of the young man could be a symbol of youth, vigou