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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1972.57
Title
Seated Man
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
late 6th-early 5th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Attica
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304318

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
7.4 x 5.1 cm (2 15/16 x 2 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 88.65; Sn, 10.48; Pb, 0.17; Zn, 0.097; Fe, 0.06; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.02; Sb, less than 0.05; As, 0.48; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.017; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

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

Technical Observations: The statuette is a solid cast, made using the lost-wax process. Much of the surface detail was done in the wax model. There are some casting flaws, but otherwise the figure appears to be intact. The patina consists of green, red, and brown corrosion and encrustations over a blackish brown substrate.


Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Captain E. G. Spencer-Churchill collection, (by 1915). [Christie's (London), June 21, 1965, sold]; to [Munzen und Medaillen A. G. (Basel), sold]; to Frederick M. Watkins, New Haven, CT, (by 1966), bequest; to the Fogg Museum, Harvard University, 1972.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Frederick M. Watkins
Accession Year
1972
Object Number
1972.57
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
Although this seated man lacks his left foot and right leg below the knee, he projects an air of vigorous power and commanding presence. The right arm is outstretched to the side with its hand raised in a fist, as if meant to hold an upright scepter or weapon. The left arm bends at the elbow with the fist extended in front of the left side. Marked by horizontal divisions and pulled in at the waist, the abdomen ends in a prominent inguinal ridge terminating at the genitals. The chest muscles are broad, and there is a prominent, wide groove that marks the shoulder muscles on the right side. Well-proportioned in relation to the body, the man’s head turns slightly to his left; his hair rests in a cap-like mass on the crown of the head. The back edge of the figure’s cap-like hairdo projects outward and slightly upward. A close-cut pointed beard with well-defined upper edges and small mustache frames the lower part of his face, which has shallowly modeled oval-eyes and a small, pursed mouth. No visible traces of incised detail indicating strands on either the hair or beard survive. The underside of the buttocks is concave and clearly rested on a rounded, convex surface of some kind.

The commanding pose of this small figure, monumental despite its miniature scale, may indicate a deity, perhaps Zeus. There is a corresponding figure of a beardless youth from the Athenian Acropolis whose modeling and scale are virtually identical and whose underside is similarly concave. This statuette, in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, suggests that the two may have been a pair, adorning the rim of some kind of large vessel or object, such as a tripod (1). The late K. Schefold had previously expressed the opinion that the statuette is Corinthian (2); however, this bronze and its counterpart in Athens could perfectly well be Athenian products of the period c. 510 to 490 BCE.

NOTES:

1. Inv. no. 6602; see A. de Ridder, Catalogue des bronzes trouvés sur l’Acropole d’Athènes (Paris, 1896) 278-79, no. 754, fig. 262.

2. K. Schefold, pers. comm.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • David Gordon Mitten and Suzannah F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exh. cat., Verlag Philipp von Zabern (Mainz am Rhein, Germany, 1967), p.84, no. 78.
  • The Frederick M. Watkins Collection, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1973), p. 22-23, no. 5.
  • Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), Artemis (Zürich, Switzerland, 1999), Vol. 8, Zeus 49.
  • Michael Padgett, ed., The Berlin Painter and His World: Athenian vase-painting int he early fifth century B.C., exh. cat., Yale University Press (U.S.) and Princeton University Art Museum (New Haven, 2017), p. 278, no. 36

Exhibition History

  • Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/04/1967 - 01/23/1968; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, 03/01/1968 - 04/13/1968; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 05/08/1968 - 06/30/1968
  • The Frederick M. Watkins Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 01/31/1973 - 03/14/1973
  • The Berlin Painter and his World: Athenian Vase-Painting in the Early Fifth Century, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, 03/04/2017 - 06/11/2017; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 07/07/2017 - 10/01/2017

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