Harvard Art Museums > 1913.13: Head of a Barbarian or Giant Sculpture Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Head of a Barbarian or Giant , 1913.13,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Dec 22, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/292173. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. Gallery Text The curls of this large head are more unkempt, and its bulging brows more emotionally expressive, than those of the statue to the left, and the contrast is even stronger with the young athlete nearby. The pose of the body would have been more complex and extroverted, as is characteristic of sculptures of the Hellenistic period (323–30 BCE) and into Roman imperial times. The statue to which the head belonged most likely depicted an opponent of the Greeks or their gods, namely a barbarian or giant, and it might have formed part of a group. The monuments connected with Pergamon in Asia Minor and Sperlonga in Italy provide examples of such group compositions. To imaginatively complete the fragment, one should picture the eyes inlaid in glass and stone. Like most ancient sculptures, this statue would have been painted, and the lifelike eyes would have gazed out from a ruddy face. Identification and Creation Object Number 1913.13 Title Head of a Barbarian or Giant Other Titles Alternate Title: Colossal Head of a Barbarian or Giant, copy after a Greek type of c. 150 BC Classification Sculpture Work Type head, sculpture Date 1st-2nd century CE Places Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World Period Roman Imperial period Culture Roman Persistent Link https://hvrd.art/o/292173 Location Location Level 3, Room 3200, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Classical Sculpture View this object's location on our interactive map Physical Descriptions Medium Asia Minor marble Technique Carved Dimensions 45 cm h x 23 cm w x 33 cm d (17 11/16 x 9 1/16 x 13 in.) Provenance Recorded Ownership History Edward Perry Warren, Esq., London, (by 1913), gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1913. Acquisition and Rights Credit Line Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Edward P. Warren Accession Year 1913 Object Number 1913.13 Division Asian and Mediterranean Art Contact am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu Permissions The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. Descriptions Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 199046 Colossal Head of a Giant or Barbarian The subject of this powerful, fragment head could have been a giant related to types seen on the larger frieze of the Altar of Zeus Soter at Pergamon in the 160s BC. Alternatively, the head may have been part of a figure of a heroic warrior, a mythological subject like the companions of Odysseus at Speralonga or an idealization from actuality. The last suggestion could include barbarian allies of Alexander the Great or one of the peoples (the Pisidians) who fought against Macedonian and Greeks in Asia Minor. The former suggestion embraces the Trojan Wars, where various races fought. The head is a splendid over-lifesized copy of the late first or second century AD, in the Hellenistic tradition, made by sculptors perhaps from Aphrodisias in Caria, after an original probably in bronze, or perhaps in colored marble, since the eyes were made separately. This concept radiates the power of Pergamon and shows how widespread was the varied art generated by that hilltop city in northwest Asia Minor. A partial glimpse of just one figure from what was undoubtedly a dramatic group, the muscular brow below masses of thick, undercut curls, demonstrates just how much Pergamene art took from the athletic sculpture of Skopas in the fourth century BC, figures like the original of the Harvard Meleager. This fragmentary head also reveals the additions Pergamene and Rhodian or Carian sculptors imparted to the fourth-century ideal, creating a force referred to again and again in the arts until the Middle Ages. There are a number of statues and heads in various European museums that parallel this splendid fragment, but many lack the impressiveness seen here, being much more mechanical copies. Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer Publication History George M. A. Hanfmann, An Exhibition of Ancient Sculpture, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), p. 15, no. 39 George M. A. Hanfmann, Greek Art and Life, An Exhibition Catalogue, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), no. 188. Cornelius C. Vermeule III, Greek Art: Socrates to Sulla, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, MA, 1980), pp. 81, 82, 131, 252, 253, fig. 104A Cornelius C. Vermeule III, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America, University of California Press (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1981), p. 211, no. 176 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. 63, no. 46 Exhibition History Greek Art and Life: From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Private Lenders, Fogg Art Museum, 03/07/1950 - 04/15/1950 32Q: 3200 West Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050 Subjects and Contexts Google Art Project 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
