Pig Scratching
Frederick George Richard Roth American
Cast by Roman Bronze Works
An accomplished animal sculptor, Roth portrayed humorous aspects of animal life. Here a pig awkwardly scratches itself on the post to which it is tied. Its companion piece (06.404) depicts a pig struggling to pull away from the stake to which its right hind leg is bound. Roth's careful depiction of the pig's muscles, bones, and skin texture reflects his training in both art and veterinary anatomy. His rendering of this pig may have resulted from a visit to a slaughterhouse on the Lower East Side of New York. This statuette is one of six in the Metropolitan’s collection that was purchased from Roth in 1906, at a time when the museum was making a special effort to collect smaller bronzes by American sculptors.
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