Bidspirit auction | Roman figure of a frog.

Roman figure of a frog. - Roman figure of a frog made of porfido verde antico. Eyes inlaid in white and black stone. Left front paw broken. 1st - 3rd century AD. The charming figure is an absolute rarity in many respects. The material, also called 'Krokean stone' or 'Lacedaemonian marble', comes from a lava dome in the Peloponnese. It is characterized by its dark green base color. Slightly lighter feldspar crystals partially form cross-shaped motifs, which also imbued the stone with Christian symbolism during Byzantine times. Apparently, the quarries were no longer used in the post-antique period, making the material very rare even today. In antiquity, it was almost never used for sculptures, as it is naturally more suited for decorative purposes and hardly for three-dimensional motifs, especially representations of humans. The most famous collection of animal figures is found in the Sala degli animali in the Vatican. Among others there is a dolphin apparently made of the same material (Inv. 510), a crab made of green porphyry (Inv. 393), and a toad made of rosso antico. The latter comes from Villa Hadriana, where it was probably placed in the extensive gardens. A similar context can also be imagined for our piece. See also for the toad: F.M.Ricci. (Hrsg.). Vaticano. La sala degli animali. FMT Vol.4, 2003, fig. 75. With French export license from 2012!