Sucellus

Sucellus (possibly meaning "The Good Striker") was a major Gaulish deity associated with the underworld, whose attributes include his wolf-skin garment, a mallet or hammer (now missing from his upraised hand), and a small jar called an "olla." This statuette is the earliest and finest of any known Sucellus image. The portrayal is reminiscent of Classical Greek style, and he resembles the Greek hero Heracles. Behind him, like a symbol of worship, appears an oversized mallet with five smaller mallets radiating from it. The statuette was excavated along with three other statuettes (a second Sucellus and two statuettes of Mercury) as well as a bronze panther, a group of lamps, and numerous metal implements in the city center of Vienne (Roman Vienna), Isere, France.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

M. Brouse, Vienne, 1866, by excavation. Wills Collection Sale, by 1894; John Edward Taylor, 1894, by purchase; John Edward Taylor Collection sale, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, July 1912, no. 364 [illus.]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.