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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.307
Title
Running Fox
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
first half 5th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Archaic period, Late, to Early Classical
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303975

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
2 x 4.4 cm, 0.07 cm (13/16 x 1 3/4 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 76.99; Sn, 10.63; Pb, 12.07; Zn, 0.002; Fe, 0.01; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.03; Sb, 0.08; As, 0.17; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.01; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The fox is a solid cast and is intact. It was probably modeled in the wax, and some post-casting finish work is evident at the bottom of the back feet. There are tool marks on the surface, such as on the proper left hind leg, which appear to be modern from rough cleaning. The patina is smooth black with some green and red.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.44.307
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
This small solid-cast fox runs swiftly forward. His front and hind legs are cast in one piece. His long tail curves upward. His narrow muzzle projects forward from between two large ears. There is otherwise no surface decoration. This fox, whose natural agility is well characterized despite its small size, belongs to a group of cast animals and birds that were designed to decorate the outer rims of elaborate bronze mirrors supported by female and occasionally male figures. The animals on the rims of these caryatid mirror discs sometimes show foxes chasing hares, sometimes with roosters involved, a scene which perhaps descends from the hounds chasing hares on the lowest figural bands of Protocorinthian and transitional Corinthian figural vases dating from c. the middle of the seventh century BCE (1). A few examples of these animal disc-mirror decorations are surmounted by a small cast siren attachment used as the mount for a suspension ring. This fox would be very much at home as a component of a number of caryatid mirrors attributed to Corinthian or Athenian workshops produced during the first half of the fifth century BCE (2).

Foxes often occur as prey for human hunters, brought in hanging from a pole after capture. Foxes were also thought to be cunning creatures. The tondo of a red-figure cup in the Vatican shows a small fox sitting upright and conversing with Aesop (3). Thracians are often represented on Athenian red-figure vases wearing a cap called an alopekis, which was sometimes made of fox skin (4).

NOTES:

1. See, for instance, a Protocorinthian aryballos in the Musee du Louvre, Paris, inv. no. CA1831, and another in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Taranto, inv. no. 4173.

2. For example, see L. O. K. Congdon, Caryatid Mirrors of Ancient Greece (Mainz, 1981) 160-61, 163-65, and 172-73, nos. 46, 50-51, and 62, pls. 41, 45-46, and 58.

3. Museo Gregoriano Etrusco, inv. no. 16552.

4. For example, see a skyphos in the collection of Eberhard-Karls Universität, Tübingen, inv. no. S101347, which depicts the Thracian goddess Bendis wearing a fox-skin alopekis.


David G. Mitten

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