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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1991.36
Title
Draped Arm from a Statuette
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
statuette, sculpture
Date
1st century BCE-3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period
Roman period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/299905

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
11.8 cm (4 5/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 80.64; Sn, 6.64; Pb, 12.07; Zn, 0.439; Fe, 0.05; Ni, 0.03; Ag, 0.05; Sb, 0.08; As, less than 0.10; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: This solid lost-wax cast was made in one piece to be fit onto a figure, although there is no indication of how it would have been attached, as the inside of the shoulder is filled with a friable, light green, plaster-like material that conceals the inner surface. The modeling is fine and done with attention to the anatomy and details in the arm and drapery. The fingers and folds in the drapery are articulated, having been defined in the wax and reworked in the metal. The fingernails are indicated with two quick strokes in the wax forming a V-shape that is slightly open at the point. Some additional work was done with a chisel in the metal either during original chasing or later restoration to further define the first knuckle of the thumb; this work left several short, stepped chisel marks. The hand is traversed by a hole—now filled with corrosion material—that would have served to hold an attribute. The surface is relatively smooth with an even, light brown patina and isolated areas with reddish cuprite and green corrosion products. The outside of the elbow and an area on one of the lower edges of the drapery are marred with rather large pits that are the result of corrosion. A few small spots of black sulphidic corrosion on the inside of the drape and shoulder result from its storage environment following excavation.


Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2011)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Norbert Schimmel collection, Great Neck, NY, (by 1978), to; the Schimmel Foundation, Inc. (1990-1991), given; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1991.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Schimmel Foundation, Inc.
Accession Year
1991
Object Number
1991.36
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
A long cloak covers the shoulder, falls along the back of the arm, and is looped around the forearm at the wrist of this separately cast left arm. The cloak is fastened with a circular brooch at the shoulder; it forms a loop of cloth above the pectoral and hangs from the forearm in schematic folds, with edges of the cloth indicated. The arm is otherwise bare. The musculature is naturalistic; the hand is clenched and would have once held a staff or scepter. A cylindrical hole is visible in the hand, with the remnants of the staff or scepter still visible. All five fingers of the hand are sculpted; the thumb sticks out and the smallest finger is missing. The incised fingernails are triangular in shape. The underside of the shoulder is hollow for joining to a statuette.

Many ancient bronze statuettes were actually composed of several pieces that were cast separately and then assembled by soldering. This arm was made separately to be soldered onto a statuette that would have been cast without a left arm. D. K. Hill identified dozens of left arms and statuettes without left arms where the statuettes had clearly been created that way (1). Left arms were more likely to have been lost, because, as the less active arm, they were frequently covered in drapery or held heavy attributes. It was therefore sensible to mass-produce, so to speak, left arms for attachment to statuettes as needed (2). The drapery would have helped to conceal the join of the arm to the body. An arm of this type would have been most appropriate for a statuette of the Dioskouroi or Mercury (Hermes). According to Hill, most of these types of statuettes are Early or Middle Imperial, while the type of cloak and drapery appears on Hellenistic marble statues (3).

NOTES:

1. See D. K. Hill, “Note on the Piecing of Bronze Statuettes,” Hesperia 51.3 (1982): 277-83, esp. nos. B1-B10 (B5 is this object). Compare M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Greenwich, CT, 1971) 70, no. 72; D. Bondoc, “New Roman figurines of bronze from Dacia Malvensis,” in The Antique Bronzes: Typology, Chronology, Authenticity. The Acta of the 16th International Congress of Antique Bronzes, Organised by The Romanian National History Museum, Bucharest, May 26th-31st, 2003, ed. C. Muşeţeanu (Bucharest 2004) 81-82, no. 7, from Romula, Romania, now in the Muzeul Romanatiului Caracal (inv. no. 11411); and M. Kunze, Meisterwerke antiker Bronzen und Metallarbeiten aus der Sammlung Borowski 1: Griechische und römische Bronzen (Ruhpolding and Mainz, 2007) 194-95, no. R 3 (inv. no. GR 184), which shows a photograph of a statuette next to its separately made left arm.

2. Hill 1982 (supra 1) 278 noted instances where the wrong arms were attached to statuettes, such as Mercury (Hermes) statuettes with arms bearing drapery that was more appropriate to a Jupiter (Zeus) figure.

3. Ibid., 278-79.


Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • Jürgen Stettgast, Von Troja bis Amarna: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York, exh. cat., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz, 1978), no. 63.
  • Dorothy Kent Hill, "Note on the Piecing of Bronze Statuettes", Hesperia (1982), Vol. 51, No. 3, 277-83, p. 282, no. B5, pl. 77d.
  • Susanne Ebbinghaus, ed., Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, Harvard Art Museum and Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2014), p. 52

Exhibition History

  • Von Troja bis Amarna: The Norbert Schimmel Collection, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, 03/18/1978 - 05/28/1978; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 06/24/1978 - 09/03/1978; Archäologische Staatssammlung München - Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte, 09/28/1978 - 01/06/1979

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

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