This beautiful bronze captures a moment when the full achievement of Classical art began to be used for the representation of a single, transitory state. The youth is nude except for a crown of myrtle, an attribute of followers of the god Dionysos. His pose no longer dictates one primary view, for his torso and legs assume a true contrapposto, and his downward glance reinforced by the direction of the arms makes a rather tight spiral of the whole composition. There is a perfect congruence among all parts of the figure, but the shifts in direction evident from every angle maintain an effect of instability and impermanence.
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Said to have been found in Knidos, ancient Karia, south-western Asia Minor, modern-day Turkey (von Bothmer and d'Harnoncourt 1950, p. 9, no. 45)
[Until 1946, with Georges Zacos and Petro Hanaz, Istanbul]; [June 7, 1946, purchased by Joseph Brummer from G. Zacos and P. Hanaz]; [June 1946-January 1947, with Joseph Brummer, New York (P16103)]; January 1947, acquired by Walter C. Baker, purchased from Joseph Brummer; 1946-1971, collection of Walter C. Baker, New York; acquired in 1972, bequest of Walter C. Baker.
von Bothmer, Dietrich and René d'Harnoncourt. 1950. Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: An Exhibition from the Collection of Walter Cummings Baker, Esq. no. 45, p. 9, pl. 11, New York: Walter Cummings Baker.
1950. Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities: An Exhibition from the Collection of Walter Cummings Baker, Esq. no. 45, p. 9, New York: The Century Association, New York.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1961. Ancient Art from New York Private Collections: Catalogue of an Exhibition held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, December 17, 1959–February 28, 1960. no. 143, p. 37, pl. 44, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1975. "Greek and Roman Art." Notable Acquisitions (Metropolitan Museum of Art), No. 1965/1975: p. 119.
Mertens, Joan R. 1985. "Greek Bronzes in the Metropolitan Museum of Art." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 43(2): no. 31, pp. 11, 46–47.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1987. Greece and Rome. no. 51, pp. 70–71, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Brandt, Kathleen Weil-Garris, Cristina Acidini Luchinat, James David Draper, and Nicholas Penny. 1999. Giovinezza di Michelangelo no. 63, pp. 384–85, Florence: Artificio Skira.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 236, pp. 200–1, 451, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. and Seán Hemingway. 2016. Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World no. 2, p. 103, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Hemingway, Seán. 2021. How to Read Greek Sculpture. p. 136, fig. 53, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than 30,000 works ranging in date from the Neolithic period to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312.
