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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1960.451
Title
Statue of a Young Man or Boy
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
statue, sculpture
Date
c. 525 BCE
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Italic
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/289686

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Volcanic tuff
Dimensions
actual: 70.6 cm (27 13/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson
Accession Year
1960
Object Number
1960.451
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
12

Statue of a Young Man or Boy (Kouros)

The right arm from the middle of the upper arm, the left forearm, and the legs from just above the knees are missing. A break through the waist has been mended.

This small statue has been called "Sikel" sculpture as a way of explaining the awkward style and carving. The face has a strong Archaic smile with a thick lower lip. Something of this regional identification may have been conditioned by the alleged attribution of this and the following statue to inland Sicily. Material and style might better associate them with the art of the Etruscans around 500 BC, a precise date being difficult to determine because of delayed uses of current late Archaic Greek models by the sculptors of Vulci and surrounding areas.

Generally speaking, were this statue to have been fashioned in Southern Italy or Sicily, as in the majority of surviving examples, it would have been carved in imported Greek marble or fashioned in terracotta. The kouros from Megara Hyblaea in Geneva was worked from marble quarried on the island of Chios (Schefold, Cahn, 1960, pp. 213-214, no. 234b, dated around 490 BC). The earlier, more famous torso from the same region, in the Museo Nazionale, Syracuse, was carved from Parian marble and has a strong resemblance to the statue discussed in the following entry (Schefold, Cahn, 1960, pp. 146, 173, no. 111a).

Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer

Publication History

  • Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 27, no. 206
  • Karina Turr, Fälschungen antiker Plastik seit 1800, Mann (Berlin, Germany, 1984), p. 98, no. E 3
  • Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 25, no. 12

Exhibition History

  • The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu