Important Miniature Silver Statuette of the Etruscan Wine God Fufluns

Culture: Etruscan

Period: 5th century B.C.

Material: Silver

Dimensions: 6.5 cm high including the mounting pin

Price: Reserved

Ref: 4244

Provenance: Collection U. S., Cologne, acquired in the 1960s. Thereafter with the art dealer Elmar Pfennings, Cologne, around 1980. With Forum Romanum Antik, Cologne, before July 1994. Acquired there by the last owner on 11 July 1994. With the original invoice and expertise from Forum Romanum Antik.

Condition: Intact.

Description: Small but exceptionally finely crafted silver statuette of Fufluns, the Etruscan god of wine and fertility, who is identified with the Greek Dionysos. Fufluns has a full beard with a curved moustache and a separately worked wreath, which was soldered in place. It gathers the thick hair at the crown, letting it fall down the back in fine strands over the shoulder. In his right hand, extended to the side, he holds a rhyton – likewise separately worked and soldered in place – decorated with longitudinal grooves, made in cold-worked technique. His left arm is bent and extended forward, with the fingers outstretched. The god wears a close-fitting garment decorated with trim, falling in rich folds down to the ankles. His bare feet peek out from beneath the robe. On the right foot is a mounting pin by which the statuette was mounted in antiquity and which is today inserted into a cylindrical wooden base. An identical bronze statuette is published in: Sybille Haynes, “A Miniature Bronze Statuette,” in: Studi Etruschi 69, Florence 2003, pp. 71-75.