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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1955.122
Title
Child at Play
Other Titles
Former Title: Jumping Child
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
1st-3rd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/311351

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Mixed copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
3.6 x 3 x 1.2 cm (1 7/16 x 1 3/16 x 1/2 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Mixed Copper Alloy:

Cu, 77.91; Sn, 5.27; Pb, 4.38; Zn, 10.59; Fe, 1.07; Ni, 0.14; Ag, 0.08; Sb, 0.39; As, 0.17; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.006; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, 0.002

J. Riederer

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

Technical Observations: 1955.122 was cast from a bivalve mold and is only roughly finished, exhibiting crude workmanship. There is a hole in the bottom of the left foot for attachment to a base. The patina is brown with faint green coloration in places.

The cast figurines were both made in a two-part mold. On each, a seam that goes around the sides of the body, arms, legs, and head has been filed smooth in the bronze in an attempt to hide it. The filing is particularly crude in 1955.122, and this fact, along with the lack of a burial patina and a perfectly preserved surface, makes this bronze questionable as an antiquity.

1977.216.3418 is more carefully finished in the bronze along the seam, although there are deep striations from finishing the surface elsewhere. Unlike the other casting, the surface does show some signs of wear and age.

The heads of the two figurines are very similar in shape, size, and expression. They could be related to each other or derived from a single source, but they are not so similar that a direct connection due to mold-making procedures can be demonstrated clearly.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Aimée and Rosamond Lamb, Milton, MA (by 1955), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1955.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Aimée and Rosamond Lamb
Accession Year
1955
Object Number
1955.122
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
A small, nude child of approximately one to two years of age stands on its left foot with its arms outstretched. There is no clear indication of the child’s sex. Curly hair frames its pudgy face, which is turned to the left and down. The fingers are summarily rendered.

The figure is of a type related to 1977.216.3418, a child at play that was part of a composition consisting of two children clapping their right hands together as they stand on their left legs (1). The representation of children in naturalistic poses first came into fashion in the Hellenistic period, when many new and innovative compositions were created (2). This piece is a Roman variant of a Late Hellenistic original work.

NOTES:

1. For the type, see a bronze group of identical scale in a German private collection published in B. Schweitzer, Antiken in ostpreussischem Privatbesitz (Halle, 1929) 44-45, no. 19, pl. 26.

2. For a discussion of artistic representations of children in the Hellenistic period, see L. A. Beaumont, “The Changing Face of Childhood,” in Coming of Age in Ancient Greece: Images of Childhood from the Classical Past, eds. J. Neils and J. Oakley (New Haven, 2003) 77-81.


Seán Hemingway

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