Friday, January 17, 2014

Ancient Roman statuary at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: marble torso (Rogers Fund, 1917) -- Roman -- said to have come from a monastery.

Speranza

Marble torso of a youth
Period: Mid-Imperial, Hadrianic or Antonine
Date: ca. A.D. 118–161
Culture: Roman
Medium: Marble
Dimensions: H. 83.8 cm
Classification: Stone Sculpture
Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1917
Accession Number: 1917.230.21
This artwork is currently on display in Gallery 153

Beginning in the first century B.C., statues were created in a classicizing style that incorporated or combined elements typical of Greek sculpture of the fifth century B.C.

The relative stiffness and lack of organic clarity in this torso suggest it may be such a work rather than a true copy of a classical Greek statue.

The flat, softly rendered planes and polished surface are often found in statues of the Hadrianic and early Antonine periods.

Provenance
Purchased in Rome and said to have come from a monastery


References
Richter, Gisela M.A. 1921. "Greek and Roman Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 16(1): p. 11, fig. 3.

Frel, Jiri. 1973. "The Literate Potter: A Tradition of Incised Signatures on Attic Vases." Metropolitan Museum Journal 7: pp. 127-30, figs. 1-2.

Coscia, J., Jr. and E. J. Milleker. 2003.
Light on Stone: Greek and Roman Sculpture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a Photographic Essay. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 97, pls. 19-21.

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