Monumental Sabaean Votive Statue of an Offering Bearer

Culture: Sabaean

Period: 2nd-1st century B.C.

Material: Bronze

Dimensions: 33.5 cm high

Price: 24 000 Euro

Ref: 6404

Provenance: Private collection Shlomo Moussaieff (1925-2015), Israel. Acquired between 1948 and 2000.

Condition: Broken at the ankles and professionally reassembled without any missing parts. An impressive, very large bronze statue.

Description: Large bronze statue of an offering bearer from the South Arabian kingdom of Sheba dating to the Hellenistic period. The young man stands straight with an unclothed upper body. A long, ribbed apron is wrapped around his waist reaching to his knees. Underneath he wears trousers covering his ankles. He has both arms bent and stretched forward. In his left hand he holds a small bird, possibly a rooster. The right hand is raised in a praying gesture. The young man has short hair cascading in broad strands into his forehead and being fixed by a broad filet. The large statue stands on its original base. Votive statues like the present one were found for example in the Awwam temple near Ma’rib in today’s Yemen. See for reference of the hairstyle and the apron the slightly older statue in “Jemen – Kunst und Archäologie im Land der Königin von Saba”, Wilfried Seipel (editor), no. 253, page 327.