Gallo-Roman bronzes and the process of Romanization : the Cobannus hoard /

Pollini (Univ. of Southern California), a well-known scholar of early Roman Imperial art, has published information about a hoard of eight Gallo-Roman bronzes, found near Annecy in east-central France, close to ancient Boutae. Based on extensive inscriptional evidence, together with the statue of the helmeted Celto-Roman warrior god, Cobannus, the hoard probably came from a nearby sanctuary and its items produced in first- and second-century CE workshops along the Rhone or Saone valleys. The hoard, as established by Pollini, includes the Cobannus, two statuettes of Ares/Mars, a strongbox, a ritual pail, a stag, and two male adolescent portrait busts, the latter thought to be servile ministrants to the cult. Presently divided between the Getty Museum and a New York private collection of antiquities, the hoard survived in such good condition that these objects must have been carefully buried. Excellent, numerous illustrations establish Pollini's detailed analysis of the constituent elements of the group and their relationship to other contemporary Gallo-Roman works, and complement his careful definition of the characteristics of Gallo-Roman art in the service of a Celtic cult. A fine study and a distinguished contribution. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. R. Brilliant Columbia University