Hellenistic bronze dwarf flute player

Alexandrian, 1st century BC

Height: 5.3 cm

Bronze ithyphallic dwarf depicted playing the pipes. He half sits balanced upon a projecting strut; his short legs bent at the knee either side of his enlarged phallus. His right arm is bent at the elbow to hold a pipe to his open mouth, his left arm, now missing would have held a similar pipe. On his head he wears a conical hat or pilos from which long slightly curled locks of hair escape.

Dwarf figures were a popular subject in Alexandria. They often appeared as caricatures with exaggerated features and deformities. Such figures may have had a religious significance representing dancers and musicians associated with the ecstatic orgiastic celebrations for Dionysus or Cybele or simply be intended as a general evocation of festivity. Ptolemaic papyri refer to dancers, including dwarves, hired for religious and private occasions.

Provenance: European private collection 1990s; With Rupert Wace Ancient Art, 2003; Private collection of Guy Goudchaux, London, UK acquired from the above, May 2003; With RWAA since 2012 (purchased back directly from Guy Goudchaux)

£7,500