Parallels for this boy's unusual and unclassical costume, particularly his trousers and ornate pyramidal hat, can be found in works from the eastern borders of the Hellenistic world in the kingdoms of Commagene and Armenia, north of Mesopotamia, beginning in the middle of the first century B.C. This statuette was found in Egypt together with an identical figure that is now in the collection of the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
The subject's identity has been much debated and remains a mystery. He may represent Attis, a god of vegetation from Phrygia in central Anatolia. It has also been suggested that the existence of two copies of the same statuette may reflect a double geographical reference—that is, if set up together, the twin figures could be identified as the personifications of Armenia Major and Armenia Minor. However, the images are so similar that more likely they represent the same individual. Most recently, the statuette has been identified as a portrait of Alexander Helios, son of Mark Antony and Cleopatra VII, as prince of Armenia after Mark Antony's conquest in 34 B.C. On the other hand, the mannered style, exotic dress, and moderate scale of this figure likely signal a decorative function for the statuette, possibly as a lamp or incense-burner stand.
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Title:Bronze statuette of a boy in Eastern dress
Period:Late Hellenistic or Early Imperial
Date:mid-late 1st century BCE
Culture:Greek, Ptolemaic or Roman
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:25 1/8 in., 29.5 lb. (63.8 cm, 13.4 kg) Width: 11 7/8 × 12 3/4 in. (30.2 × 32.4 cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Edith Perry Chapman Fund, 1949
Accession Number:49.11.3
Said to have been found east of the Suez Canal or in Alexandria in 1912 (Smith 1917, p. 135)
1912, said to have been found east of Suez Canal or in Alexandria; [in 1920s, with the Durlacher Brothers, New York or London]; by 1944, with the Spanish Art Gallery, London; [until June 1949, with Joseph Brummer, New York]; acquired in June 1949, purchased through the Parke-Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York.
Smith, A. H. 1917. "A Bronze Figure of a Youth in Oriental Costume." The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 37: pp. 135–39, pl. 2.
Reinach, Salomon. 1924. Répertoire de la Statuaire Greque et Romaine, Tome V, Vol. 1. no. 4, p. 222, Paris: E. Leroux.
Bienkowski, Piotr. 1928. "Les Celtes dans les art mineurs gréco-romaines, avec des recherchesiconographiques sur quelques autres peuples barbares." Ph.D. Diss. p. 62. Imprimerie de l'Université des Jagellons à Cracovie.
Hill, Dorothy Kent. 1944–1945. "Bracatae Nationes." The Journal of the Walters Art Gallery, 7-8: pp. 80–1, figs. 4-5.
Seltman, Charles Theodore. 1944. Exhibition of Greek Art: 3000 B.C. - A.D. 1938 no. 256, p. 25, Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum.
Parke-Bernet. 1949. Classical and Medieval Stone Sculptures, Part III of the Art Collection belonging to the Estate of the late Joseph Brummer. June 8–9, 1949. no. 37, pp. 6–7.
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tokyo National Museum, and Kyoto Municipal Museum. 1972. Treasured Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. no. 39, fig. 39, Tokyo: Tokyo National Museum.
Mertens, Joan R. 1985. "Greek Bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 43(2): no. 33, pp. 50–51, 63.
Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC). 1986. Vol. 3: Atherion-Eros. "Attis," p. 34, no. 261, pl. 30, Zürich: Artemis Verlag.
Kozloff, Arielle and David Gordon Mitten. 1988. The Gods Delight: The Human Figure in Classical Bronze. no. 51, pp. 288–93, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art.
Thompson, Dorothy J. 1988. Memphis under the Ptolemies. pp. 127, 131, 136, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
True, Marion, Dr. 1988. The Gods Delight : The Human Figure in Classical Bronze, Arielle Kozloff and David Gordon Mitten, eds. no. 51, pp. 288–95, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art.
Goudchaux, Guy Weill. 1991. "Archibios, sauveur des effigies de Cleopatre VII." VI Congresso internazionale di Egittologia, Vol. 1. pp. 651–56, Turin: International Society of Egyptologists.
Mattusch, Carol. 1996. The Fire of Hephaistos : Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections pp. 255–62, fig. 2a–d, Cambridge, Mass: Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Harvard Art Museums.
Knudsen, S.E. 1996. "The Fire of Hephaistos, Large Classical Bronzes from North American Collections, Exhibition overview." Minerva, 7(3): p. 26, fig. 5.
Ling, Roger. 2000. Making Classical Art: Process and Practice pp. 41–42, fig. 20, Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia.
Eisenberg, Jerome M. 2000. "“The Egyptian Congress in Cairo.” Report on a talk by Guy Weill Goudchaux, “The Rediscovery of Two Royal Bronze Figures of Alexander Helios.”." Minerva, 11(4): p. 43.
Hemingway, Seán A. 2000. "Bronze Sculpture." Making Classical Art: Process and Practice, Roger Ling, ed. pp. 41–42, fig. 20, Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia.
Walker, Susan and Peter Higgs. 2001. Cleopatra of Egypt: From History to Myth. no. 270, pp. 250–51, London: British Museum.
Goudchaux, Guy Weill. 2003. "Bronze Statuettes of a Prince of Armenia." Egyptology at the Dawn of the Twenty-first Century. Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists, Cairo, 2000, Zahi Hawass and Lyla Pinch Brock, eds. pp. 254–60, Cairo: American University in Cairo Press.
Andreae, Bernard and Karin Rhein. 2006. Kleopatra und die Caesaren : Eine Ausstellung des Bucerius Kunst Forums, 28. Oktober 2006 bis 4. Februar 2007. p. 164–65, fig. 122–24, München: Hirmer.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 243, pp. 209, 452, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Kleiner, Diana and B. Buxton. 2008. "Pledges of Empire: The Ara Pacis and the Donations of Rome." American Journal of Archaeology, 112(1): p. 81, fig. 13.
Zanker, Paul, Seán Hemingway, Christopher S. Lightfoot, and Joan R. Mertens. 2019. Roman Art : A Guide through the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Collection. no. 126, pp. 258–59, New York: Scala Publishers.
Spier, Jeffrey, Timothy F. Potts, and Sara Cole. 2022. Persia : Ancient Iran and the Classical World no. 139, pp. 242–43, Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum.
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