Group of Four Human Figures | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 2022.241
Title: Group of Four Human Figures
Classification: Sculpture
Work Type: statuette, sculpture
Date: c. 2000 BCE
Places: Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Syria
Period: Bronze Age, Middle
Culture: Syro-Hittite
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/369979

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Copper alloy
Technique: Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions: 8.7 × 5.4 × 1 cm (3 7/16 × 2 1/8 × 3/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: [Charles D. Kelekian, New York (by 1952-1982)], by descent; to [Kelekian Associates, New York (1982-1992)], by descent; to Nanette Rodney Kelekian, New York (1992-2021), bequest; to the Harvard Art Museums.

NOTE:
"Kelekian Associates" was formed at the death of Charles D. Kelekian by Nanette Rodney Kelekian and her mother Beatrice Kelekian. Upon Beatrice Kelekian’s death in 1992, ownership passed to Nanette Rodney Kelekian.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Bequest of Nanette B. Kelekian
Accession Year: 2022
Object Number: 2022.241
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description: A “bunch” of four figures sprouting from a shared, unformed base. Two larger figures with male genitalia are framed by two smaller, presumably female figures. The men have more prominent hands that could have held weapons or other objects, while the outstretched arms of the women extend over the male bodies.

The flat figures simplify the human body. They appear to have been formed individually in wax, assembled as a group, and cast in copper alloy in the direct method. The group was cast upside down: the base represents the funnel or "casting cup" through which the hot metal was poured into the mold. The faces were created by pinching the wax; a tool was used to define the lower edge of the nose; and the eyes were created from pellets. The heads are concave at back, the bodies flat.

The patina is dark brown with thin grayish green areas and light brown accretions.
Commentary: “Family” groups of this type have been associated with North Syria and dated to the late 3rd and early 2nd millennia BCE. None of the groups have been found in documented excavations, so there is significant uncertainty about their authenticity. This group of four figures has a close parallel in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

See:
Helga Seeden, The Standing Armed Figures in the Levant, Prähistorische Bronzefunde Abteilung I, vol. 1 (Munich: C. H. Beck, 1980) 15-17, pls. 10-11.
P.R.S. Moorey and Stuart Fleming, "Problems in the Study of the Anthropomorphic Metal Statuary from Syro-Palestine before 330 B.C.," Levant 16 (1984) 82-83, no. 2, with metal analysis.
Oscar W. Muscarella, The Lie Became Great: The Forgery of Near Eastern Cultures (Groningen: Styx, 2000) 196 no. 7.

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

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