Bronze statue of an aristocratic boy | All | Greek and Roman Art | Collection Database | Works of Art

Description

This bronze figure portrays a young member of a wealthy Roman family. The style of the idealizing portrait clearly indicates that the subject wished to be shown in the guise of a prince of the imperial family. While the figure has at times been identified as either Gaius or Lucius Caesar, grandsons of the emperor Augustus (r. 31 B.C.-A.D. 14), it is better to regard the statue as belonging to a member of the ruling elite on Rhodes, possibly set up in his honor by his native city. The statue was found on Rhodes, and presumably made there.

ProvenanceSaid to be from Rhodes (MMA 1938, fig. 24).

Acquired November 12, 1914, purchased from Theochares through E.P. Triantaphyllos.

Selected BibliographyRichter, G. M. A. 1915. "Bronze Statue of a Boy." MMA Bulletin 10 (January): 3-5, ill.

Richter, G. M. A. 1915. "A Bronze Statue in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." American Journal of Archaeology 19 (April-June): 121-28, pls. I-VI.

Richter, G. M. A. 1915. Greek, Etruscan and Roman Bronzes. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, pp. 149-52, no. 333.

Swift, E. H. 1921. "A Group of Roman Imperial Portraits at Corinth." American Journal of Archaeology 25: 357-58, no. 4.

Reinach, S. 1924. Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine. Vol. 5. Paris: E. Leroux, vol. 2, p. 319, no. 1.

West, R. 1933. Römische Porträt-Plastik. Vol. 1. Munich: F. Bruckmann, pp. 136ff., pl. XXXIV, fig. 147.

Curtius, L. 1935. "Ikonographische Beiträge zum Porträt der Römischen Republik und der julisch-claudischen Familie." Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archaeologischen Instituts, Roemische Abteilung 50: 300ff., fig. 22.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1938. Augustan Art: An Exhibition Commemorating the Bimillennium of the Birth of Augustus. New York, p. 10, fig. 24.

Hill, D. K. 1939. "A Cache of Bronze Portraits of the Julio-Claudians." American Journal of Archaeology 43: 406.

Richter, G. M. A. 1948. Roman Portraits. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, no. 29.

Hafner, G. 1954. Späthellenistische Bildnisplastik. Berlin: Gebr. Mann, pp. 17ff., 27, pl. 4.

Bieber, M. 1977. Ancient Copies: Contributions to the History of Greek and Roman Art. New York: New York University Press, pp. 43, 52, n. 22, 190-91, figs. 783-85.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. New York, p. 100, pl. 73.

Milleker, E. J. 2000. In The Year One: Art of the Ancient World East and West, edited by E. J. Milleker. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 35, fig. 15.

Hemingway, S., E. J. Milleker, and R. Stone. 2002. "The Early Imperial Bronze Statue of a Boy in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Technical and Stylistic Analysis." In I bronzi antichi: Produzione e tecnologia, edited by A. Giumlia-Mair. Montagnac: Monique Mergoil, pp. 200-207, figs. 1-9.

Picón, C. A., et al. 2007. Art of the Classical World in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 485, no. 405, ill. p. 351.

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