Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Leaded Copper:
Cu, 95.45; Sn, 0.49; Pb, 3.16; Zn, 0.47; Fe, 0.01; Ni, less than 0.01; Ag, 0.01; Sb, 0.41; As, less than 0.10; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.01; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, 0.008
J. Riederer
Technical Observations: The patina is a mottled green and brown, and the friable terracotta-colored and black surface accretions that are trapped in many of the pits and under the arms appear to be clay or soil-based. There is no evidence that the hands were originally cast separately and joined. The uneven texture of the surface suggests that the figure was cleaned both electrolytically and mechanically (which left the surface pocked with corrosion pits and scraped smooth facets and a sequence of chatter marks on the neck). The hands are missing; whether they were broken off intentionally is not clear.
The statuette is a solid, lost-wax cast. The cast probably started from a flat, elongated slab of wax that was cut, bent, and modeled into shape. The detail in the facial features is minimal, no doubt in part due to corrosion and later treatment. A metal flash on the back of the proper right arm suggests that the figure was not perfectly finished in the round at the time of its production. Whether some of the many facets on the torso are due to the original shaping of the statuette is unclear. The figure appears to have been cast in one piece originally, but the neck and legs are repaired (particularly the proper right leg). The joins are concealed with a reddish-brown coating that fluoresces under ultraviolet light. The crack that runs around the neck is visible under magnification, and a blob of bright silvery solder is visible on the back where the surface has been scraped down to bare metal. The stump on the figure’s underside bears peening marks, as if it had been worked over with a hammer. There are thicker, slightly different accretions, perhaps corrosion, around the ears, and flaking of the surface around the nose.
Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2012)
