A metal, human like head with two straight horns projecting from the top.
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

This is a dark metal sculpture depicting the head of a horned human like being. There are two horns that extend straight up from the top of the head. There is also a decorative spherical bump protruding from the center of the forehead. The ears are pierced all the way trough, and there is another piercing at the base of the neck, directly under the chin.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.1161
Title
Anthropomorphic Head with Horns
Other Titles
Former Title: Votive Effigy: Human Head with Horns
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
statuette, sculpture
Date
10th-8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Luristan (Iran)
Period
Iron Age
Culture
Iranian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304012

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3440, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Ancient Middle Eastern Art in the Service of Kings
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
11 x 6.4 x 2.7 cm (4 5/16 x 2 1/2 x 1 1/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, iron
Other Elements: lead, antimony, arsenic

K. Eremin, January 2014

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 88.84; Sn, 8.58; Pb, 0.14; Zn, 0.009; Fe, 1.55; Ni, 0.06; Ag, 0.02; Sb, 0.11; As, 0.61; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.085; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is a very smooth black with a thin green layer in some areas. Blue is also present at the interior, along with brown burial accretions. The hole at the throat near the bottom is a casting flaw.

The object is stable, and the surface is extremely well preserved in many areas. The smooth, irregular shapes suggest that the model was made directly in the wax. There is a depression on the reverse of the head that corresponds to the nose, so it is possible that a sheet of wax was pressed into a mold to make the general shape of the face. The back is open, and the edges of the metal are thinner at the opening, showing that the wax sheet was wrapped around a core and pressed thinner at the back up to the point of the opening. Two straps of wax were added to span the opening, perhaps for additional strength, and two loops were added to assist with mounting.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY, (by 1943), bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.1161
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This anthropomorphic horned head is characterized by large disc eyes, a long prominent nose, and a small mouth. The flat protruding ears have holes in the centers, and the forehead is embellished with a fillet that incorporates a bulbous ornament. An irregular hole, perhaps an area of damage, punctures the bottom of the long neck.

The back of this head is undecorated and concave. The reverse edges create a stabilizing frame, and on the back of the head above each ear is a perforated flap. It is unclear whether this object would have been part of a composite work or intended as a freestanding, suspended, or mounted image.

The Harvard head has no immediate parallels. However, it is stylistically affiliated with a corpus of horned anthropometric copper alloy figures known as “Piravend Figures” (1). Piravend refers to the village from which these works are said to derive, although none has been scientifically excavated, and the authenticity of many is questioned (2).

NOTES:

1. See E. de Waele, Bronzes du Luristan et d’Amlash, Publications d’historie de l’art et d’archeologie de l’Université Catholique de Louvain 34 (Louvain-La-Neuve, 1982) 240-41, nos. 397-98; P. R. S. Moorey, Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1971) 168-70, nos. 211-15, pl. 40; J. A. H. Potratz, Luristanbronzen: Die einstmalige Sammlung Professor Sarre Berlin (Istanbul, 1968) 32, nos. 123-27, pls. 22-23; and J. Rickenbach, Magier mit Feuer und Erz: Bronzekunst der frühen Bergvölker in Luristan, Iran (Zurich, 1992) 194-96, nos. 221-23.

2. See P. R. S. Moorey et al., Ancient Bronzes, Ceramics, and Seals: The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection of Ancient Near Eastern, Central Asiatic, and European Art (Los Angeles, 1981) 101-104, nos. 575-92.


Amy Gansell

Publication History

  • Arthur Upham Pope and Phyllis Ackerman, A Survey of Persian Art From Prehistoric Times to the Present, Oxford University Press (NY) and Oxford University Press (UK) (London, England and New York, NY, 1967), Vol. I, p. 277; Vol. VII, pl. 73c.
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 256 (checklist).

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 3440 Middle East, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project
  • 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