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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2000.180
Title
Squatting Silenus
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
statuette, sculpture
Date
5th century BCE-1st century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe
Period
Archaic period, Late, to Early Classical
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/168939

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Leaded bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
5.8 x 2.5 x 3.3 cm (2 5/16 x 1 x 1 5/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Bronze:
Cu, 71.07; Sn, 7.2; Pb, 21.41; Zn, 0.006; Fe, 0.02; Ni, 0.03; Ag, 0.04; Sb, 0.07; As, 0.15; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.01; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: This piece is a solid cast. It is difficult to ascertain how much of the detail was cast and how much was chased into the metal, as the surface is smoothed from wear. There are dents, scratches, and imperfections of various kinds overall, which are the result of how the object was used, stored, or cleaned after excavation. A few instances of porosity due to casting appear to have been pushed in, as can be seen from a small lip of material that is not anatomically correct on the tips of the toes. Some of the recesses and dents are filled in with an unidentified light brown material, perhaps burial accretion or wax. There are specks of bright red pigment in that brown material and on areas of the surface, particularly on the head. There is a thin dark green corrosion with a few small patches of red over the scratched surface. The patina layer is not very deep, and some areas are worn to shiny metal. However, there is a layer of cuprite under the green corrosion that would suggest a naturally developed patina structure. The rough-edged knob midway down the figure’s back, on the edge of the figure’s hairline, may be the remains of an attachment.


Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2011)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Dr. Leo Mildenberg acquired the silenus bronze from Dr. Athos Moretti of Bellinzona, Switzerland who had it in his possession since the late 1950's.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, David M. Robinson Fund
Accession Year
2000
Object Number
2000.180
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
This compact, squatting silenus sits squarely on a flat base. He draws his knees up to his stomach and extends his bearded head forward over his kneecaps. He grips the left and right edges of his beard with both hands. The compactness of his pose lends him a tense air, seen in the tightly bent and carefully modeled spine and subtly rendered volumes of his sides and back. His turned-up toes add a further touch of animation. The hair of the silenus extends in a pointed mass down the upper part of his back. Two broad lateral waves extend from side to side below the base of his head. A raised ridge of hair, concave in profile and extending between his ears, frames his forehead. His beard extends down to a drooping point with a small secondary tuft below the lower lip. The two long, outwardly pointing halves of his moustache extend nearly to the edge of the beard in front of his clenched fists. He has large, round eyes. Both hair and beard bear extensive traces of painstakingly incised individual locks. Surfaces of the statuette show heavy wear. Two unusual features deserve special comment. One is a button-shaped projection at the top of his head. The other is a small irregular projection, seemingly broken off, rising from the bottom tip of his hair mass (1).

This small, crouching silenus does not reflect the boisterous and lusty self-confidence characteristic of silenoi and seen in so many of his bronze contemporaries (2). He belongs to a venerable group of squatting and crouching figures in bronze and terracotta that are descended from similar bronze figures in the Greek Geometric period, c. 800-700 BCE (3). These in turn have Egyptian forerunners, such as the compact squatting block statues that are common from the Middle Kingdom onwards. During the seventh to early sixth centuries BCE, ceramic workshops in Corinth, on Rhodes, and probably elsewhere produced an interesting series of terracotta statuettes and plastic vessels of crouching, kneeling and seated silenoi. A black steatite crouching Ethiopian boy of perhaps a late Hellenistic date replicates the pose of this silenus almost exactly (4).

The masterfully modeled back-muscles, combined with lingering Archaic conventions for representing his hair, beard, and moustache, suggest a date c. 500 to 480 BCE. One suspects that he was made in a workshop on mainland Greece, perhaps at Corinth, although the find from Herculaneum must allow a longer possible date range.

NOTES:

1. An almost identical bronze crouching silenus was found in Herculaneum in 1748; see De’ bronzi di Ercolano 2 (Naples, 1771) 349-53, pl. 88; and L. Barré and H. Roux, Musée secret, Herculanum et Pompéi: Recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaiques, etc. 8 (Paris, 1877) 188-91, pl. 43.

2. For satyrs and silenoi in Greek Art, see J. M. Padgett, The Centaur’s Smile, exh. cat., Princeton University Art Museum (New Haven, 2003) 27-36 and 236-60.

3. Such as 1981.41; see also G. Ortiz, In Pursuit of the Absolute: Art of the Ancient World (Bern, 1996) no. 135; and M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Greenwich, CT, 1971) 33, no. 31.

4. M. Comstock and C. C. Vermeule, Sculpture in Stone: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1976) 71, no. 112.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • David Gordon Mitten, "A New Greek Bronze Silenos at Harvard (Abstract)", I Bronzi Antichi: Produzione e Technologia, ed. Alessandra Giumlia-Mair, Editions Monique Mergoil (Montagnac, 2002), p. 116.
  • David Gordon Mitten, "A Newcomer Silenus", Persephone, Classical Club of Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 2002), Vol. 6, No. 1, 50-51, pp. 50-51

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Collection Highlights

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