Portrait of a Roman Youth
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This second-century C.E. Roman portrait of a youth has many characteristics of fifth- and fourth-century B.C.E. Greek sculpture such as the shift of the boy’s weight and the idealized character of his entire body. The relatively realistic style of the head is, however, Roman. Thus the sculpture combines Greek and Roman styles.
A quiver to the boy’s right suggests that he is being identified with the god Apollo, who was often shown carrying a bow and arrows. Because in Roman Imperial times the deceased were sometimes sculpted as deities to indicate that they had become immortal, this boy’s sculpture was probably carved after his death.
The ancient marble base upon which the statue stands is from Italy but was meant for another sculpture.
Montalto (Villa Peretti), Rome, probably late 16th century-at least 1685 [1];
Petty-Fitzmaurice family, Lansdowne House, London, probably late 18th century-March 5, 1930;
By descent to Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 6th Marquess of Lansdowne (1872-1936), Lansdowne House, London, by March 5, 1930;
Purchased at his sale, The Celebrated Collection of Ancient Marbles, The Property of the Most Hon. The Marquess of Lansdowne, held at Lansdowne House, London by Christie, Manson and Woods, March 5, 1930, lot 105, by Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York, stock no. P6924, 1930-1934 [2];
Purchased from Brummer Gallery by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1934.
NOTES:
[1] The sculpture is included as “Una Statua di Nerone ignudo coll’arpa nelle mani, p.i 77” in an inventory of the Villa Peretti from the Archivo Cardelli, which is transcribed in Maria Giulia Barberini, “Villa Peretti Montalto-Negroni-Massimo alle Terme Diocleziane: la collezione di sculture,” Studi sull Settecento Romano 7 (1991): 21.
[2] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Cloisters Library and Archive, Brummer Gallery Records, Greek and Roman marbles and stones, Object inventory card number P6924.
“Inventario delle Statue, suppellettili ed altro esistenti nel Palazzo Peretti alle Terme,” Archivo Cardelli, n .91 [see Barberini below].
Johann Joachim Wickelmann, Geschichte der Kunst des Altertums (Dresden, 1764), 245.
Frédéric de Clarac, Musée de sculpture antique et moderne, vol. 5, Statues (Paris, 1841), 2510a, plate 971.
Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 1882), 445, no. 34.
The Celebrated Collection of Ancient Marbles, The Property of the Most Hon. Marquess of Lansdowne (London: Christie’s, March 5, 1930), lot 105.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 2nd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1941), 22, fig. 14.
The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, The William Rockhill Nelson Collection, 3rd ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1949), 27.
Cornelius Vermeule, review of The Athenian Agora: Results of Excavations Conducted by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. 1, Portrait-Sculpture, by Evelyn Harrison, The American Journal of Archaeology 58 (1954): 255.
Cornelius Vermeule, “Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain,” American Journal of Archaeology 59 (1955): 139.
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 38.
Cornelius Vermeule, “Antinous, Favorite of the Emperor Hadrian,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) vol. 3, no. 1 (October 1960): 7, fig. 5.
Fasti Archaeologici 15 (1960): 269, no. 3903.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 48.
Elaine Gazda, Bulletin (Museums of Art and Archaeology, the University of Michigan) 3 (1980): 6, figs. 9, 10.
Cornelius Vermeule, Greek and Roman Sculpture in America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981), 318-19, no. 273.
Jaochim Raeder, Die statuarische Ausstattung der Villa Hadriana bei Tivoli, Europäische Hochschulschriften, Reihe 38, Archäologie (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1983), 146, Kat. 3, no. 2.
Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 30, fig. 7.
Maria Giulia Barberini, "Villa Peretti Montalto-Negroni-Massimo alle Terme Diocleziane: la collezione di sculture," Studi sull Settecento Romano 7 (1991): 16, 21.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 122.
Federico Rausa, “L’album Montalto e la collezione di sculture antiche di Villa Peretti Montalto,” Pegasus. Beiträge zum Nachleben der Antike 7 (2005): 108-11, figs. 13-14.
Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 18, fig. 48.
