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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1952.21
Title
Sacrificial Ram and Attendant
Other Titles
Former Title: Servant and Sacrificial Ram
Classification
Riding Equipment
Work Type
ornament
Date
second half 1st century CE or modern
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Roman Imperial period, Early
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/312303

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Mixed copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
9.3 x 6.7 x 1.7 cm (3 11/16 x 2 5/8 x 11/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Mixed Copper Alloy:
Cu, 78.47; Sn, 4.44; Pb, 10.39; Zn, 5.54; Fe, 0.55; Ni, 0.16; Ag, 0.11; Sb, 0.17; As, 0.16; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.012; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 2
Alloy: Mixed copper alloy
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, lead, zinc
Other Elements: iron, nickel, antimony, arsenic

K. Eremin, June 2015

Chemical Composition:
Lead Isotope Analysis (Pb, 10.39%):

Pb206/Pb204, 18.49700; Pb207/Pb204, 15.64837; Pb208/Pb204, 38.59146; Pb, 207/Pb206, 0.84599; Pb 208/Pb206, 2.08636; Pb208/Pb207, 2.46617



P. Degryse

Technical Observations: The patina features a resinous black coating with spots of brown-bronze patina where the black is lost. There is no clear evidence of long-term burial. The object is complete.

The figure is not finished on the reverse and appears to have been made from a wax model, which was formed by applying wax to an open one-piece mold. The back of the head and other details may have been refined in the wax, but there is no evidence of cold working.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Edward Jackson Holmes
Accession Year
1952
Object Number
1952.21
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
The small relief depicts a young attendant (victimarius) leading a ram to sacrifice. The man and ram walk to the right. The man’s head is turned in profile and very sketchily modeled; his torso is shown frontally to three-quarter view. He is nude from the waist up. He grasps the ram’s head with his left arm and rests his right arm on its rump. Only the torso of the man is rendered; he does not have a lower body or hands, which would have been hidden behind the ram. The ram, on the other hand, is completely in profile. It walks to the right on an irregular ground line; all four legs of the ram are visible. The ram has a very shaggy coat and tail, represented with clumps rendered at different heights. Like the man, the downward-tilted head is sketchily rendered, but the curving horn, eyes, and snout are discernible. A thin, pointed tang (9 mm long) protrudes from the ground line under the left hind hoof of the ram.

This piece is either a copy of or from the same mold as a relief currently in the Museo Nazionale Archeologico, Naples, which was first published in 1843 and dated to the Neronian-Flavian periods (1). It may have decorated the breastplate or balteus of a horse, as one component of a sacrificial scene, likely a suovetaurilia, or sacrifice of a pig, sheep, and bull (2). Other examples of these reliefs are also flat or open on the back, like this one.

NOTES:

1. Inv. no. 5487; see U. Kreilinger, Römische Bronzeappliken: Historische Reliefs im Kleinformat, Archäologie und Geschichte 6 (Heidelberg, 1996) 199, no. 194, pl. 41; and Real Museo Borbonico 13 (Naples, 1843) pl. 28.4. The differences between the pieces appear to be minor: the relief of the sheep’s wool on the Harvard piece is slightly more defined, and it also has a longer tang than the Naples piece.

2. Kreilinger also explores other possible uses of these relief plaques, but most seem to have been balteus decorations; see Kreilinger 1996 (supra 1) 28-41. For discussion of sacrificial scenes on this type of small copper alloy plaque and their relationship to large-scale Roman historical reliefs, see ibid., 129-30 and 134-48.


Lisa M. Anderson

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