Base with Centaurs in Relief
- 103
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.
Arthur Hugh Smith-Barry, 1st Baron Barrymore (1843-1925), Marbury Hall, Cheshire, England, by 1882-1925;
By descent to his nephew, Robert Raymond Smith-Barry (1886-1949), Marbury Hall, Cheshire, England, 1925-July 27, 1933;
Purchased at his sale, Egyptian, Greek and Roman Antiquities, Sotheby’s, London, July 27, 1933, lot 115, by Brummer Gallery, Paris and New York, stock no. P10035, 1933-1934 [1];
Purchased from Brummer, through Harold Woodbury Parsons, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1934.
NOTES:
[1] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Library and Archives, Brummer Gallery Records, Greek and Roman marbles and stones, Object inventory card number P10035.
Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 1882), 514, no. 41.
Cornelius Vermeule, “Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain,” American Journal of Archaeology 59 (1955): 142.
