A TORSO OF GANYMEDE H. 81.3 cm. Marble. Roman. 2nd cent. A.D. This life-size figure of the Trojan prince Ganymede, beloved of Zeus and cup-bearer to the gods of Olympos, ultimately derives from a Hellenistic prototype. The youth stood in a relaxed pose, with his weight borne on a straight right leg, his left slightly flexed and set back with heel raised. A short cloak is draped about his upper body and fastened at the right shoulder. Traces of historical repairs. Collected in Italy in the 19th century by the Belgian engineer Léon de Somzée. Provenance: Formerly French priv. coll., acquired in 1907, and thence by descent. Previously Léon de Somzée (1837 -1901), 22 rue des Palais, Brussels. Publication: A. Furtwängler, Sammlung Somzée. Antike Kunstdenkmäler (Munich, 1897) 50, no. 74, illus. Collections de Somzée. Première partie. Monuments d'Art antique. Vente 24 May 1904, no. 74, illus. S. Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, vol. VI, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1913) 375, no. 4. C. Evers, "Collectors of Ancient Sculpture in Belgium in the 19th Century: Léon Somzée and Raoul Warocqué", Kölner Jb. 40 (2007) 25, fig. 2 (view of sculpture as installed in the "Grand Hall" of the Hôtel Somzée, Brussels, with torso of Ganymede at far right middle). N-