Youth | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1978.69
Title: Youth
Classification: Sculpture
Work Type: statuette, sculpture
Date: first half 5th century BCE
Places: Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period: Classical period, Early
Culture: Greek
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/304178

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Leaded bronze

Technique

Cast, lost-wax process

Dimensions

5.8 x 2.3 x 1.7 cm (2 5/16 x 7/8 x 11/16 in.)

Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 90.7; Sn, 5.14; Pb, 3.92; Zn, 0.005; Fe, 0.02; Ni, 0.03; Ag, 0.02; Sb, less than 0.02; As, 0.16; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.011; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The patina is brown with areas of black and spots of green and underlying red. The feet and arms are broken off and lost. The surface is damaged by corrosion and cleaning. The solid casting was probably made from a model formed directly in wax, although the use of a mold for making the model cannot be excluded. The surface is in poor condition, but the facial features appear to have been enhanced with cold work. The broad lines of the hair were probably cut with a broad point or chisel or were also done by cold work in the metal.

Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Norbert Schimmel
Accession Year: 1978
Object Number: 1978.69
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This stocky nude male statuette stands with his weight on his right leg and his left leg bent slightly forward. His feet are missing. His complex pose varies markedly from the usual frontality of Early Classical nude male statuettes in the contrapposto stance. The stump of his right arm, raised above shoulder height, extends horizontally to a break just above the elbow. His torso is slightly twisted, and this carries through to his left arm, which is slightly bent at the elbow and hangs down alongside the body to the level of his hip. The left hand is missing. The artist has rendered the musculature of the torso summarily but effectively. The back has a vertical spinal groove that extends to bottom of the buttocks. The youth’s head, with large rounded eyes flanking a long nose and an incised mouth, is tilted downward and slightly to the left. His hair falls in a spreading mass to just below the base of his neck. Curving striations flank a central vertical groove. The top of his head has been artificially flattened. It is unclear whether this was altered to contain the base of a pin. The twisted pose of the youth suggests incipient action of some kind, perhaps boxing, as if the complete right arm may have been delivering a blow to an opponent’s face or chest. Although this statuette is very similar in scale to the youthful flying erotes that sometimes flank bronze mirror caryatids of the early to mid-fifth century BCE, there are no traces of wings on the back of this figure, and the action is markedly different. This youth may have been part of a group of athletes. His date should be around 480 to 450 BCE. An attribution to a Peloponnesian workshop, perhaps one at Argos, seems plausible.

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

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