1960.460: Torso of Archaic Kouroi Type
SculptureIdentification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1960.460
- Title
- Torso of Archaic Kouroi Type
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Work Type
- sculpture
- Date
- c. 525 BCE
- Places
- Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, South Italy?
- Period
- Archaic period
- Culture
- Etruscan
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/289145
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Volcanic tuff
- Dimensions
-
110 cm h x 47 cm w x 28 cm d
(43 5/16 in. h x 18 1/2 in. w x 11 in. d)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Said to have been found at Selinunte.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of David M. Robinson
- Accession Year
- 1960
- Object Number
- 1960.460
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
Published Catalogue Text: Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums , written 1990
13
Torso of the Type Identified with Archaic Kouroi
This statue bears traces of purple paint on white underpaint. The head and lower legs are missing. There are patches on the chest repaired in plaster.
The forms of the area from the waist to the knees are suggestive of the section of a kouros found in the tumulus of Pietrera at Vetulonia and now in the Archaeological Museum, Florence. It was made of pietra fetida, a stone of local nature (Hus, 1961, pp. 30, 127-133, pl. 1).
The face of the Robinson kouros with head preserved can be paralleled in the head of a sphinx in the Musee du Louvre, from Vulci, no. 2054 (Hus, 1961, p. 42, no. 11, pl. xxiv), and a double-herm in Florence, no. 73.138, from Orvieto (Hus, 1961, p. 84, no. 1, pl. xxxvii). The first statue is made of nenfro, and the second sculpture is carved in trachyte.
In summation, the increased understanding of local, Archaic sculptures in Etruria suggest that the two Robinson statues, as well as other heretofore unclassified, "rustic" works of Archaic art in rough stones, belong in the "twilight" world (made so by illicit excavation) of Etruria, rather than in any obscure, undocumented Sicilian antiquarian "red herring" of an alleged provenance. In truth, these statues could have been set up in the same way as all the more common Etruscan animals, real and fantastic (leopards, lions, sphinxes, hippocamps, and a centaur), along the dromoi or atop the entrances of Etruscan tombs at Vulci and nearby areas.
Cornelius Vermeule and Amy Brauer
Publication History
- Fogg Art Museum, The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities, A Special Exhibition, exh. cat., Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, 1961), p. 27, no. 205
- Karina Turr, Fälschungen antiker Plastik seit 1800, Mann (Berlin, Germany, 1984), pp. 97-98, no. E 2
- Cornelius C. Vermeule III and Amy Brauer, Stone Sculptures: The Greek, Roman and Etruscan Collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 26, no. 13
Exhibition History
- The David Moore Robinson Bequest of Classical Art and Antiquities: A Special Exhibition, Fogg Art Museum, 05/01/1961 - 09/20/1961
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