Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Unable to open [object Object]: HTTP 0 attempting to load TileSource: https://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/iiif/46473665/info.json
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1947.76
Title
Head of a Ram
Classification
Vessels
Work Type
handle
Date
second half 5th-first half 4th century BCE or later
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Archaic period to Hellenistic
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304017

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
2.6 x 4 x 4.5 cm (1 x 1 9/16 x 1 3/4 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 71.14; Sn, 7.35; Pb, 20.75; Zn, 0.016; Fe, 0.31; Ni, 0.06; Ag, 0.08; Sb, 0.07; As, 0.23; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is green and brown. The head is a solid cast. The back edge is a finished cast surface with a 5-mm deep recess in the middle. The surface decoration was created in the wax model with the possible exception of an incised line in the cheeks in front of the horns.


Henry Lie (submitted 2000)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Frederick Randolph Grace Memorial Fund
Accession Year
1947
Object Number
1947.76
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: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The ram’s head is finely modeled, with curling horns whose projecting tips are placed in front of the ears, which also project outward. The horns are marked by faint diagonal grooves on the outer sides and the tops. The ram’s fleece consists of regular spiral curls modeled in relief, with each curl spiraling counterclockwise. Three rows of curls occur on the underside of the head between the horns. A modeled or incised line curves in front of the tips of the horns. The underside of the ram’s head is flat. The bridge of its nose, extending from the front row of curls to the nostrils, is convex in profile and deeply rounded. The modeling of the cheekbones consists of a convex triangular ridge that extends from underneath the eye to just behind the nostrils on both sides of the head. The eyes are oval, with pronounced eyelids and eyebrows. The mouth and nostrils are outlined by deep grooves. The nostrils extend diagonally backward from the tip of the muzzle. Two lateral, parallel grooves extend across the front edge of the bridge of the nose. The ram’s head is solid with a shallow circular depression at the back, which may have been served as a socket for the insertion of a cylindrical handle.

This head’s fine modeling in relief, almost all rendered in the wax model, makes it highly likely that this object was cast in the second half of the fifth or the first half of the fourth century BCE. It seems likely that this ram’s head served as the terminal for the handle of a shallow basin or patera intended for washing hands, usually used with a trefoil oinochoe. This type of handled patera, usually made of bronze, persists for centuries, extending well into the middle Roman Imperial Period (1).

NOTES:

1. D. Dunham, “Two Pieces of Furniture from the Egyptian Sudan,” Bulletin of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 46 (December 1948): 98-101, esp. 100-101, figs. 5-9; and M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Greenwich, CT, 1971) 457, no. 668, there called “Graeco-Roman.” See also A. P. Kozloff, Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, 1981) 183-84, no. 168, dated to the first and second centuries CE with extensive comparative literature; S. Boucher and S. Tassinari, Bronzes antiques du Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine a Lyon 1: Inscriptions, statuaire, vaisselle (Lyon, 1976) 124-25, nos. 140-42; and M. Castoldi, “Recipienti in bronzo dal territorio dell’antica Brixia tra età tardorepubblicana ed età augustea,” in The Antique Bronzes: Typology, Chronology, Authenticity, ed. C. Muşeţeanu (Bucharest, 2004) 85-95, esp. 91, fig. 8 (from Vergina, in silver).


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • George M. A. Hanfmann, Greek Art and Life, An Exhibition Catalogue, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1950), no. 18.
  • George M. A. Hanfmann, "Acquisitions of the Fogg Art Museum: Sculpture and Figurines", American Journal of Archaeology (1954), Vol. 58, No. 3, 223-229, p. 227, pl. 38, fig. 11.
  • Lenore O. Keene Congdon, "The Mantua Apollo of the Fogg Art Museum", American Journal of Archaeology, Archaeological Institute of America (New York, NY, 1963), Vol. 67, 7-13, p. 227.

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

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Related Objects

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