Fine Furniture & Collections - Day Two - 1st July 2026
Lot 724
AN ITALIAN PATINATED BRONZE GRAND TOUR BUST OF APOLLO OR MELLEPHEBE
Estimate £1,000 - £1,500 | Hammer £3810
Inc. Buyers Premium
Description
AN ITALIAN PATINATED BRONZE GRAND TOUR BUST OF APOLLO OR MELLEPHEBE
AFTER THE ANTIQUE, CAST BY SABATINO DE ANGELIS, NAPLES, LATE 19TH / EARLY 20TH CENTURY
with founder's plaque, on a marble socle
46.7cm high
Catalogue Note
This sculpture depicts an idealised youthful figure traditionally identified either as Apollo, the god of light, music, and prophecy, or as a beautiful youth known in earlier antiquarian literature as 'Mellephebe'. The original bust was discovered in 1752 at the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, it currently resides in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples.