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/46473738/info.json
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1966.108
Title
Fawn on Rectangular Base
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
second half 8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Boeotia
Period
Geometric period, Late
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311008

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.9 x 4.8 x 1.8 cm (1 9/16 x 1 7/8 x 11/16 in.)
Technical Details

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

Technical Observations: 1952.41 has been stripped of corrosion products, and the surface is now slightly oxidized bright metal and very pitted, with black material in the pitted areas. The right rear leg is broken and dislocated at the knee. The other stamps (1920.44.224, 1966.108, and 1987.33) are mostly green with areas of red. 1966.108 is mostly mineralized and the surface has been cleaned mechanically, leaving scrape marks in many areas and exposing the red layers. The tip of the tail is lost. The little surface detail that remains cannot be safely attributed to the casting rather than the cleaning. 1920.44.224 has most of its rough corrosion products intact. The tip of the beak is lost. 1987.33 is broken and crudely repaired at the post under the left bird and the strut between their necks. Portions of both birds’ tails are lost.

All of the stamps appear to have been modeled directly in wax prior to casting. No evidence of metal joins is visible. The large horse’s (1952.41) base appears to have been constructed from strips of wax rather than pierced from a wax sheet. The strut between the bird pair (1987.33) projects through the neck on the right bird and was probably set into holes in the necks in the wax model. The surface of 1966.108 is not well enough preserved to determine the extent of cold-work finishing.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, David M. Robinson Fund
Accession Year
1966
Object Number
1966.108
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
Attributed to a Boeotian workshop, this miniature fawn may be part of a larger ensemble by “The Master of the Boston Deer and Fawn,” as originally defined by G. Ortiz (1). The left legs are markedly thicker than the right, which may indicate a preferred profile with the animal facing to the right. The alert, somewhat over-sized head with its pricked-up ears is set at a diagonal to the short neck, while the horizontal back leads to a short tail, now broken off. The pronounced, spur-like hocks accentuate the adolescent quality of the legs that splay out to the four corners of the base. Each upper leg is stamped with a circle containing a central point; the two designs on the legs on the left are somewhat more visible than their counterparts on the right. The underside of the partially corroded base is decorated by a small rectangle enclosed by the larger raised rectangle that comprises the edges of the base.

A great many bronze and terracotta figurines of both domestic and wild animals were dedicated in sanctuaries throughout Greece in the Geometric period (2). Domestic animals were the predominant subjects, reflecting their importance in an economy that was based on agriculture and animal husbandry (3). Deer were sacred to Artemis, who both protected and hunted them, and figurines of deer are numerous at her sanctuaries. Images of deer also appear at sanctuaries for other divinities, including Hera, Athena, and Apollo.

NOTES:

1. For “The Boston Deer and Fawn” from the E. P. Warren Collection, which is said to be from the Kabeirion sanctuary near Thebes, see M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Greenwich, CT, 1971) 5, no. 3 (inv. no. 98.650). For an exhaustive discussion of the products of the master of “The Boston Deer and Fawn,” see J.-L. Zimmermann, “Bronziers bèotiens et cervidès géométriques,” Numismatica e Antichità Classiche (Quaderni Ticinesi) 19 (1990): 9-29. For a bronze Geometric deer in the Princeton University Art Museum, see D. G. Mitten and S. F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, exh. cat., The Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University; City Art Museum of St. Louis; The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Mainz, 1967) 41, no. 24. For Ortiz’s discussion of a bronze geometric doe on an openwork base in his collection, see his In Pursuit of the Absolute: Art of the Ancient World, The George Ortiz Collection (Bern, 1996) no. 78 n.1.

2. For a thorough discussion of deer images, see F. Brein, Der Hirsch in der griechischen Frühzeit (Vienna, 1969); and E. Bevan, Representations of Animals in Sanctuaries of Artemis and Other Olympian Deities, BAR International Series 315 (Oxford, 1986) 110-14; and ibid., Appendix 8.5, 389-93, which includes bones of deer found at Greek sanctuaries. For deer at Tegea, see M. E. Voyatzis, The Early Sanctuary of Athena Alea at Tegea and Other Archaic Sanctuaries in Arcadia, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology and Literature 97 (Göteborg, 1990) 140-43, pls. 74-76. For bronze deer figurines on bases at Olympia, see W.-D. Heilmeyer, Frühe olympische Bronzefiguren: Die Tiervotive, Olympische Forschungen 12 (Berlin, 1979) 148-51, pl. 87; and no. 721, pl. 253.

3. On the relationship between animal herds, farmsteads, and the Geometric period sanctuary of Olympia, see ibid., 195-97.


Tamsey Andrews and David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • H. Wade White, "Recent Accessions in Sculpture", Fogg Art Museum Newsletter, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1967), Vol. 4, No. 3, fig. 4.
  • Fogg Art Museum Acquisitions, 1966-1967, Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1967), p. 82 (ill.), 159.
  • Jean-Louis Zimermann, "Bronziers Béotiens et Cervidés Géométriques", Numismatica e Antichità Classiche (1990), Vol. 19, 9-29, p. 11, no. 12; 16, pl. 3, fig. 8.
  • Susan Langdon, ed., From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer, exh. cat., University of Missouri Press (Columbia, MO, 1993), p. 216-17, no. 86.

Exhibition History

  • The Age of Homer, University Museum, University of Philadelphia, 10/10/1969 - 03/14/1970
  • From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer, Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, 10/09/1993 - 12/05/1993

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