Bath Slave with Balsamarium from ancient Aphrodisias in The Louvre

Bath Slave with Balsamarium from ancient Aphrodisias in The Louvre.
Discovered on the site of the ancient city of Aphrodisias in Caria (Turkey), this late 2nd or early 3rd century CE statuette of black marble depicts a young slave wearing an exomis, a short tunic gathered at the waist and fastened over one shoulder. In his left hand he holds a balsamarium, a flask holding perfumed oil. The facial features and tightly curled hair indicate that the slave was an Ethiopian or Nubian. Often used at Aphrodisias for bichrome sculptures (of black and white marble), the black marble here serves to render the color of the skin. The close attention to the musculature and the non-realistic conception of the piece are characteristic of the Aphrodisian sculpture workshops. Sculptors of this period were particularly fond of genre scenes of slaves, old men, beggars and hunchbacks. In his Rhetorica ad Herrenium, Cicero tells us that the Ethiopian slaves employed at the public baths were very popular in Rome. A number of the pavement mosaics adorning public baths - at Pompeii (the House of Menander) and Timgad, for example - feature caricatures of these bath-slaves.


Image © Musée du Louvre and H. Lewandowski.

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