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A skinny figure with a large helmet.

A figure with long skinny limbs stands with their legs apart, their left leg is cut off mid-calf. Their right arm is bent and raised, with a hole in their hand. Their left arm is extended out and broken off at the wrist. Their face is indicated by simple carved lines. They wear a headdress made up of a large half-circle disc that droops down behind them like a tail. There are carved decorations on the torso that look like a decorated tunic, and all over the surface of the headdress. The surface is polished brown all over.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1977.216.2310
Title
Warrior
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
6th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Umbria
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Italic
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304026

Location

Location
Level 3, Room 3700, Ancient Mediterranean and Middle Eastern Art, Roman Art
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
28.6 x 9.5 x 9 cm (11 1/4 x 3 3/4 x 3 9/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 83.54; Sn, 9.84; Pb, 6.08; Zn, 0.085; Fe, 0.11; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.07; Sb, less than 0.02; As, 0.16; Bi, 0.075; Co, 0.025; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Leaded Bronze
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, lead
Other Elements: iron
K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is brown with patches of red cuprite and green malachite; there are tan accretions in the low areas. The warrior is missing his lower proper left leg, the proper left hand, and spear. Modern file marks are evident on the broken surfaces where the left hand and leg were originally attached, as well as on the proper right foot.

The figure is a solid cast made using the lost-wax process with surface designs done in the wax model prior to casting.


Carol Snow and Nina Vinogradskaya (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Henry W. Haynes collection, Boston, MA, (by 1912), bequest; to the Harvard University Department of Classics, (1912-1977), transferred; to Fogg Art Museum, 1977.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, Bequest of Henry W. Haynes, 1912
Accession Year
1977
Object Number
1977.216.2310
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 stylized figure, with thin, elongated body and limbs, represents a warrior in an attacking stance. The warrior strides forward with his left leg; his right arm is held up and once grasped a spear in the small hole in his fist. His left arm, extended away from his body and broken at the wrist, once carried a shield. There is no indication of musculature on either arm. The warrior’s angular face is highly stylized, with wide eyes, a prominent, triangular nose, and a small mouth. His helmet leaves his face entirely exposed, and the cheek pieces are lifted up on either side of his head. The high, broad crest of the helmet is elaborately incised with patterns of dots, triangles, and squares; the tail of the crest hangs down the warrior’s back, extending down to his waist. His cuirass is decorated on the front and back with incised tabs, circles, spirals, chevrons, and dots. Two large triangular shoulder guards are indicated, and the cuirass below the waist consists of three rows of rectangular tabs. The cuirass is very short, leaving the genitalia and buttocks exposed. Plain greaves cover the legs from the knees down. It is not clear from the extant right foot whether the warrior was depicted wearing footwear.

Various types of statuettes depicting a warrior, perhaps Mars or the dedicant, are found in northern Italy during the Archaic period (1). Statuettes thought to be by the same artisan as the Harvard piece are in the collection of the Rhode Island School of Design, Museum of Art, Providence, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2).

NOTES:

1. See G. Colonna, Bronzi votivi umbro-sabellici a figura umana 1: Periodo “arcaico” (Florence, 1970) 76-83, nos. 174-92, pls. 49-60; and M. Bolla and G. P. Tabone, Bronzistica figurata preromana e romana del Civico Museo Archeologico “Giovio” di Como (Como, 1996) 44-55, nos, A19-32, esp. A 19.

2. Providence, inv. no. 34.011; and Boston, inv. no. 52.186. For a discussion of this artisan and the 17 suggested examples of his work, along with his workshop, see Q. Maule, “Etrusco-Italian Bronzes: The Todi Workshop,” Studi etruschi 58 (1992): 75-88. The closest comparable piece to the Harvard statuette is in the Villa Giulia, Rome, inv. no. 6724.

Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • D. Barrett Tanner, "Etruscan Art in the Fogg Museum", Bulletin of the Fogg Art Museum (1933), Vol. 3, No. 1, 12-17, p. 13.
  • Emeline H. Richardson, "The Icon of the Heroic Warrior: A Study in Borrowing", Studies Presented to George M. A. Hanfmann, ed. David Gordon Mitten, John Griffiths Pedley, and Jane Ayer Scott, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1971), 161-168, no. 1, pls. 38.a-d, 39.e-g.
  • Emeline H. Richardson, Etruscan Votive Bronzes: Geometric, Orientalizing, Archaic, Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz, 1983), p. 192, Late Archaic Warrior Series C, Group 5, no. 11, fig. 448, pl. 143.
  • Larissa Bonfante Warren and F. Roncalli, ed., Antichita dall'Umbria a New York, exh. cat., Electa/Editori umbri associati (Perugia, Italy, 1991), p. 202, 204, no. 4.6, fig.
  • Quentin Maule, "Etrusco-Italian Bronzes: The Todi Workshop", Studi Etruschi (1992), Vol. 58, 75-88, no. 2, pl. 13.c.

Exhibition History

  • Gens Antiquissima Italiae: The Etruscans in Umbria, Grey Art Gallery, New York, 09/09/1991 - 11/02/1991
  • 32Q: 3700 Roman, Harvard Art Museums, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • 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